• Journal of Home Health Care Nursing
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.20-31
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• 2011

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to document the experiences of elderly persons with chronic diseases who are under hospital-based home care services and to find out how they describe the experiences using a narrative inquiry method. Methods: The participants are 7 elderly patients over the age of 70. Data collection and analysis were conducted through Jeong Gwang Soon's six-stages: observing phenomena, selecting participants, talking, talking again, writing, and confirming. Results: The results of data analysis were classified into 4 themes of overall experience related to chronic diseases: response to home health care, overcoming chronic disease, life reconstruction, and 22 categories as common denominators extracted from the elderly persons' lives. Conclusion: This research makes the experiences of the elderly living with chronic diseases more understandable, and it can be utilized as a effective nursing praxis to improve the quality of elderly persons with chronic diseases in hospital-based home care services.

• Korean Journal of Biological Psychiatry
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.72-78
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• 2018

Objectives The high suicide rate has risen as a main concern in South Korea. Given the complexity of the mechanism resulting in complete suicide, studies targeting various populations are needed for broader understanding of its risk factors. This study aims to analyze the factors affecting the suicidal tendency in the population of the elderly living alone in Seoul depending on basic elderly-care services. Methods A total number of 415 people participated in the study. Home-visit interviews were administered by trained interviewers. Suicidal tendency was measured by the Korean version of mini international neuropsychiatric interview (K-MINI). Health-related quality of life was measured by a brief version of the World Health Organization Quality-of-life Scale (WHOQOL-BREF). Alcohol problem was assessed by the Korean version of the alcohol use disorders identification test (AUDIT-K). Among total subjects of 415 interviewees, the actual responses of 408 people were used for the final analysis. Results The result showed that the suicide risk was high in persons isolated from social support [odds ratio (OR) = 4.49], having depression (OR = 14.85), and having low quality of life (OR = 4.39). Conclusions We found that social support, depression and health-related quality of life are associated with suicidal tendency in the elderly living alone on basic services. Our evidence will contribute to suicide prevention policy for the elderly living alone on care services.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.479-490
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• 2017

The objective of this study is to examine the association of social networks and medical care utilization of elderly living alone depending on self-rated health status, and also to measure the moderating effects of welfare services for elderly. To this purpose, the data which was collected from the 2014 National Survey on Elderly in Korea was analyzed by Chi-square test and Poisson regression. According to the results, social networks and elderly welfare services affected to medical care utilization of elderly living alone, only who aware of their self-rated health status as bad. With this group, the frequency of contact with family and participation in lifelong education had a significant effect on increasing medical care utilization. In contrast, the frequency of contact with neighbors and the participation in elderly employment program were significant to reduce the utilization of medical care. Furthermore, the moderating effects of elderly welfare services were also measured that formal social gathering has an effect of increasing the medical care utilization of elderly living alone by expansion of their social networks. Based on these results, this study consequently has an implication for suggesting expansion of elderly welfare services, which might be an alternative to social networks of elderly living alone, and also for seeking the direction of political intervention that helps health promotion and disease prevention through the research of medical care utilization.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.54 no.1
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• pp.63-72
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• 2021

Objectives: Recent studies have suggested that assessing handgrip strength (HGS) asymmetry together with HGS may be helpful for evaluating problems in geriatric patients. This study aimed to identify whether HGS asymmetry, weakness, or both were associated with depression in Korean older adults. Methods: This study included 4274 subjects from the sixth and seventh Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Depression was measured using the Patient Health Questionnaire-9. The maximum HGS of the dominant hand was used as a representative value. HGS symmetry was categorized by the ratio of the HGS of the dominant hand to that of non-dominant hand. The odds ratio (OR) for depression was calculated according to the HGS and its symmetry. Results: In total, 240 (12.5%) men and 534 (22.7%) women had depression. HGS or HGS asymmetry showed no statistically significant associations with depression in elderly men. Elevated odds of depression were observed in elderly women with low HGS (OR, 1.93; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.33 to 2.81) or prominent HGS asymmetry (OR, 1.46; 95% CI, 1.02 to 2.08). There was a positive additive interaction between asymmetric HGS and weakness, as women with low and prominently asymmetric HGS showed higher odds of depression (OR, 3.77; 95% CI, 2.16 to 6.59) than women with high and symmetric HGS. Conclusions: Depression in elderly Korean women was associated with both low and asymmetric HGS. Our findings support the potential value of HGS asymmetry as an indicator of HGS.

• Journal of Korean Public Health Nursing
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.182-192
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• 2007

Purpose: The objectives of this study were to define basic data for developing silver services related to goods, medical care, finance, leisure and residence. Method: In this cross-sectional study, the subjects were 792 pre-elderly and 382 elderly. The data were collected 2005 by using a structured questionnaire from Aug. 19 to Sep. 5. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics on the SPSS version 12.0 for windows. Result: The pre-elderly had the intention to use massage chair(36.6%), homecare service(29.8%), national pension(35.9%), sports(48.5%) and personal house(59.5%) in the ares of silver goods, medical care, finance, leisure and residence, respectively. The elderly wanted sphygmomanometer(38.7%), homecare service(27.7%), pocket money from their offspring (40.5%), sports(33.5%), and personal house(74.8%). They wanted manpower in the area of reforming of living place, leisure time and education, counseling of silver goods, and management of finance. Conclusion: Based on this study findings, the pre-elderly are thoroughly established for their future than the elderly. It is important to upgrade the silver services and to prepare the manpower for the pre-elderly and the elderly in the future of the aging society.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Rural Health Nursing
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.44-52
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• 2008

Purpose: This research was done to analyze factors influencing satisfaction level with welfare services by elderly people living in a mixed urban and rural area and to identify directions for improvement of service by examining characteristics of the recipients, type and content of services and the correlation between the level of satisfaction and related factors. Method: The 102 elderly people receiving services from 4 institutions in a mixed urban and rural area were selected. The results of the research include the following. Results: First general characteristics of the service-recipients, and the actual condition of the service; Second, correlation between satisfaction level of the recipients and their economic condition, health condition and activities of daily living; Third, analysis of level of satisfaction related to type of services, frequency, time required, desire of the recipients and their attitudes; Fourth, satisfaction and related factors were identified and used to identify possible problems and directions to improve service. Conclusion: The results suggest the following as ways to improve service and to increase the level of satisfaction 1) Individualization of services 2) Improvement in the way of selecting recipients 3) Reinforcement of special training courses for service providers.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.16 no.9
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• pp.225-235
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• 2016

In this study, we analyze the community health survey data for 3 years from 2011 to 2013 were analyzed for evaluation. This study attempts to comprehensively evaluate differences between elderly medical aid beneficiaries and elderly health insurance beneficiaries in terms of health-related quality of life, All of elderly medical aid beneficiaries who responded community health survey were included for study and elderly health insurance beneficiaries were randomly selected as a control group by matching gender, age and location. The findings show that the elderly medical aid beneficiaries can not receive sufficient health care services, even though they have pay a low socio-economic status, spouse or fewer households enemies and poorer health behavior and higher morbidity of chronic diseases than the elderly health insurance beneficiaries do. But elderly health insurance beneficiaries also showed that not enough care utilization is high morbidity of chronic diseases. These factors aggravate the medical aid beneficiaries' health-related quality of life This characteristic was analyzed to lower health-related quality of life of the elderly. Therefore, it is necessary to strive for the development of appropriate services and programs taking into account the characteristics of the elderly that may go though a limited resource and promote the quality of life for the elderly more effectively re-evaluation of social services systems and programs related to elderly.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.1-10
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• 2008

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine cognitive functions, depression, and life satisfaction among the elderly receiving visiting nursing services. Methods: The subjects of this study consisted of 221 elderly individuals who were receiving visiting nursing services from a public health center located in Gyeonggi-do. The Mini-mental State Examination Korea version (MMSE-K), Geriatric Depression Scale-short form-Korea version (GDS-K), and Life Satisfaction Scale were utilized to determine cognitive functions, depression, and life satisfaction, Collected data was analyzed by the SPSS PC Win 12,0 program. Results: The prevalence of cognitive impairment (MMSE-K$\leq$24) was 86.4%, and the proportion of severe depression (GDS-K$\leq$10) was 22,6%, Older age, lower education, and low income were associated with cognitive impairment, and low education, no religion, and low income were associated with depression. Cognitive function negatively correlated with depression. Life satisfaction level was fairly low and was not associated with any variables. Conclusion: The high prevalence of cognitive impairment and low life satisfaction status were determined among low-income elderly who were registered at a visiting health care center. Thus, in the future at visiting health care services, efficient and various programs for the elderly should be tried, to improve cognitive functions and reduce depression. Additionally, consistent evaluation studies for those programs will be required.

• The Korean Journal of Community Living Science
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.67-80
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• 2006

This study conducted research on the actual state of community-oriented services for elderly rural inhabitants and their desire related to them to develop a local community service network model suitable to the characteristics of rural longevity villages. The research was conducted on 906 elderly people over 65 living in 20 rural longevity villages through questionnaires assessing filming and economy, economic activity, health care, learning and leisure activities as well as asking their wants and needs relative to local community services. As a result, it was found rural elderly people showed a high desire for local community services such as health, transportation and economy activity. In addition, they were mainly cultivating farm products as their economic activity and showed a high demand in the future as well. Most were found to take a walk in the healthcare field and showed a high demand for health examinations, health education, health consulting, hot spring bathing and basking in the woods. Respecting learning, social and leisure activities, they were mostly found to watch TV and do house chores, and showed a high desire for village environment repair, traditional farm music, visiting and tourism. With the above results, it is expected that the desire of rural elderly for such services can be satisfied, and the development of a local community service network model suitable to the characteristic of a local community is recommended.

• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
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• v.40 no.10
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• pp.123-139
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• 2002

The purpose of this study was to understand the adult day care center as a place for the elders and adults and to develop an initial understanding of the services and activity programs for adult day care for the cognitively-impaired in the U.S.A. The data were collected from 12 Adult Day Care Centers(ADC) from 2001 to 2002 by personal interview and the documents about the programs. ADC programs provided primarily social, recreational, and health activities and services in a group setting. Centers offered participants to socialize, enjoy peer support, and receive health and social services in a stimulating and supportive environment that promotes better physical and mental health. For this purpose those centers offered not only professional health care, occupational.speech.physical therapies but also socio-recreation and therapeutic-recreation services.