• Korean Journal of Biological Psychiatry
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.119-128
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• 2013

Objectives Memory impairment is a very important mental health issue for elderly and adults. Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is a prodromal stage of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Early detection of the prodromal stage of patients with AD is an important topic of interest for both mental health clinicians and policy makers. Methods Electroencephalograpgy (EEG) has been used as a possible biological marker for patients with MCI, and AD. In this review, we will summarize the clinical implications of EEG and ERP as a biological marker for AD and MCI. Results EEG power density, functional coupling, spectral coherence, synchronization, and connectivity were analyzed and proved their clinical efficacy in patients with the prodromal stage of AD. Serial studies on late event-related potentials (ERPs) were also conducted in MCI patients as well as healthy elders. Even though these EEG and ERP studies have some limitations for their design and method, their clinical implications are increasing rapidly. Conclusion EEG and ERP can be used as biological markers of AD and MCI. Also they can be used as useful tools for early detection of AD and MCI patients. They are useful and sensitive research tools for AD and MCI patients. However, some problems remain to be solved until they can be practical measures in clinical setting.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.160-168
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• 2004

Background and Objectives: Tinnitus is on the increase due to the increase in the elderly population, industrial pollution and noise pollution. This symptom is especially marked in patients with a hearing problem and the relationship between cause, mechanism and treatment is poorly understood. The characteristics of tinnitus and other hearing problems are well brought out using an animal model with salicylate ototoxicity. Therapeutic effects of Uncariae Ramulis and Testudinis Plastrum were expected in tinnitus and hearing problems; therefore we experimented on an animal model with salicylate ototoxicity. Salicylate is one of the most commonly prescribed drugs, although it has been recognized that salicylate induces hearing loss and tinnitus reversibly. The purpose of this study was to find the therapeutic effects of this by the morphologic study using salicylate ototoxicity. Materials and Methods : Twelve healthy Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into three groups: normal, control and sample. The sample group was treated with the extract of Uncariae Ramulis and Testudinis Plastrum (1cc/100g, once a day for 6 days). Then, to induce the salicylate ototoxicity in the control and sample groups, rats were injected intraperitoneally with sodium salicylate (500mg/kg). We observed the morphologic changes in the cochlea of the rats every 2, 3, 4 and 5 hours after injection. Results : The outer hair cells showed marked changes. Vacuolization formed in the cuticular plate and the endoplasm of the control group. The endoplasm and the cuticular plates of the sample group after 2 hours were similar to the control group, but the cuticular plates of the sample group observed after 3, 4 and 5 hours were not similar. Conclusions : The results suggest that an extract of Uncariae Ramulis and Testudinis Plastrum has therapeutic effects on an animal model with salicylate ototoxicity.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.694-703
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• 2010

Recent studies have reported that a subset of obese individuals who were metabolically healthy but obese had more favorable clinical outcomes than obese subjects with metabolic disturbances. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the distribution and agreement of obesity subtypes according to body mass index (BMI) and metabolic syndrome (MS). Furthermore, we examined the differences of nutrient intake among the groups. Data was analyzed for 1,095 female subjects older than 40 years using Korean National Health and Nutrition Survey in 2008. The degree of obesity was classified by two methods, using BMI (obese ${\geq}\;25\;kg/m^2$, not obese < $25\;kg/m^2$) and MS (meet ${\geq}\;3$ criteria among 5 index: waist circumference, triglyceride, glucose, HDL-cholesterol and blood pressure). Subjects were divided into 4 groups according to $2{\times}2$ cross table: non-obese without MS, non-obese with MS, obese without MS and obese with MS. Nutrient intakes were compared among 4 groups. The results showed that the proportions of non-obese without MS, non-obese with MS, obese without MS and obese with MS were 47.6%, 13.6%, 16.6%, and 22.2% of total subjects, respectively. The agreement (kappa value) of two methods was 0.354 (fair) in total subjects, 0.365 (fair) in 40-60 year old subjects and 0.304 (fair) in ${\geq}\;61$ year old subjects. In ${\geq}\;61$ years old subjects, intakes of percentage energy from carbohydrate, percentage of energy from fat, calcium, phosphorous, sodium, vitamin A, carotene, thiamine, riboflavin and niacin were significantly different among the groups. In contrast, the subjects of 40-60 years old, no differences in nutrient intakes were observed. In conclusion, there were differences in nutrient intakes among the groups subdivided by obesity and MS, especially in elderly female subjects. Individualized dietary guideline for subtype of obesity will be needed to treat metabolic disturbance of obesity.

• Journal of the Society of Disaster Information
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.466-480
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• 2014

In addition to aging social problem, the problem of older age structure ratio in the fire service organization playing the leading role of the disaster response activities is also expected to be this serious situation. In the case of Seoul fire fighting organization, it is expected that the ratio of over the age 50 reaches 31% or 40% between from 10 to 15 years later from now on, but this will be a serious problem in the fire fighting personnel needing a healthy body and physical strength in the disaster situation unlike the civil servants of general staff. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to take measures that can adapt to a new disaster environment of Increasing proportion of the elderly population by presenting the criteria of age limit of fire fighting field activities to analyze the relevance of the ability to perform on-site activities and age of Seoul fire civil servants, by using three analysis criteria.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.310-315
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• 2010

Estimation of muscle forces is important in biomechanics, therefore many researchers have tried to build a muscle model. Recently, optimization techniques for adjusting muscle parameters, i.e. EMG-driven model, have been used to estimate muscle forces and predict joint moments. In this study, an EMG-driven model based on the previous studies has been developed and isometric and isokinetic contraction movements were evaluated to validate the developed model. One healthy male participated in this study. The dynamometer tasks were performed for maximum voluntary isometric contractions (MVIC) for ankle dorsi/plantarflexors, isokinetic contraction at both $30^{\circ}/s$ and $60^{\circ}/s$. EMGs were recorded from the tibialis anterior, gastrocnemius medialis, gastrocnemius lateralis and soleus muscles at the sampling rate of 1000 Hz. The MVIC trial was used to customize the EMG-driven model to the specific subject. Once the subject's own model was developed, the model was used to predict the ankle joint moment for the other two dynamic movements. When no optimization was applied to characterize the muscle parameters, weak correlations were observed between the model prediction and the measured joint moment with large RMS error over 100% (r = 0.468 (123%) and r = 0.060 (159%) in $30^{\circ}/s$ and $60^{\circ}/s$ dynamic movements, respectively). However, once optimization was applied to adjust the muscle parameters, the predicted joint moment was highly similar to the measured joint moment with relatively small RMS error below 40% (r = 0.955 (21%) and r = 0.819 (36%) and in $30^{\circ}/s$ and $60^{\circ}/s$ dynamic movements, respectively). We expect that our EMG-driven model will be employed in our future efforts to estimate muscle forces of the elderly.

• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.143-171
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• 2006

There has been 10 years since the Health Promotion Act was legislated. The government began to establish a health promotion fund on the basis of Health Promotion Act in 1995, and to manage and operate the fund from 1998. It is evaluated that health promotion program have had various outcomes in many aspects. First, there has been growing awareness of the impotance of health promotion through the establishment of Health Plan 2010 and the effort to actualize the Plan. Second, the importance of securing health equity and identifying health determinants have been recognized during the planning process of Health Plan 2010. Third, the health promotion program have mainly focused on improving healthy life style of the population. As a result, desirable health behavior change of the population could be expected from the result of 2005 National Health and Nutrition Survey. Fourth, public health centers began to play a crucial role in implementing health promotion programs, and began to build infrastructure for health promotion programs. Fifth, management efficiency of private health related organizations have been improved. Finally, training for health promotion personnel and their participation in the program could be the foundation for the higher level of outcome achievement from the health promotion programs. Important challenges for future health promotion would be identification of the determinants and risk factors of health, formulating plan of regional health promotion programs, building infrastructure for health promotion, creation of specific action model by public health center, development of health promotion program for the elderly, conducting research for evidence concerning major factors reducing the need for health care through prevention disease activities, and establishment of evaluation and feed back system for health promotion programs.

• Journal of rehabilitation welfare engineering & assistive technology
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.349-354
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• 2017

In this study, we proposed a design guideline of height-adjustable wash basin which is an assistive product for personal hygiene for persons with disability. We performed biomechanical assessments using both of conventional and prototype height adjustable wash basin. Total five elderly subjects (all male, age $68.6{\pm}4.3yrs.$, height $169.8{\pm}5.7cm$, weight $70{\pm}7.7kg$) participated for the assessment test. Each joint angles were measured by using a 3D motion capture system when subjects use wash basins, and the lumbar moment of each subjects was estimated based on a human body model. From the assessment results, a design guideline which has the range of the height from 652[mm] to 1162[mm] was proposed. Then additional assessment tests with five healthy subjects ($25.8{\pm}1.8yrs.$, $175.5{\pm}5.8cm$, $74{\pm}15.7kg$) were performed in order to verify effectiveness of the design guideline. The results showed a height-adjustable wash basin applied the proposed design guideline was effective to reduce the lumbar moment.

• Journal of rehabilitation welfare engineering & assistive technology
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.177-185
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• 2014

In this study, the exoskeleton orthosis for the assistance of dorsiflexion torque in ankle joint to prevent foot-drop was developed. It was consist of three part; 1) the power part using artificial pneumatic actuator, 2) wearing part of ankle and knee joints to fix the orthosis, and 3) control part to detect the gait phase using physiological signal. The dorsiflexion torque was generated by the artificial pneumatic actuator connected with wearing part between ankle and knee joint. The accurate timing to assist dorsiflexion torque is made up of physiological signal in foot sole part that detect the gait phase, that is, stance and swing phase in each foot. We conduct the experiment to investigate the effect of exoskeleton orthosis to the 7 elderly people and 10 healthy people. The result showed that the muscular activities in tibialis anterior muscle were reduced because of the assistance of dorsiflexion torque in ankle joint using the exoskeleton orthosis.

• Proceedings of The Korean Society of Health Promotion Conference
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• 2005.09a
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• pp.153-195
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• 2005

There has been 10 years since The Health Promotion Act was legislated. The government began to establish a health promotion fund on the basis of Health Promotion Act in 1995, and to manage and operate the fund from 1998. It is evaluated that health promotion program have had various outcomes in many aspects. First, there has been growing awareness of the impotance of health promotion through the establishment of Health Plan 2010 and the effort to actualize the Plan. Second, the importance of securing health equity and identifying health determinants have been recognized during the planning process of Health Plan 2010. Third, the health promotion program have mainly focused on improving healthy life style of the population. As a result, desirable health behavior change of the population could be expected from the result of 2005 National Health and Nutrition Survey. Fourth, public health centers began to play a crucial role in implementing health promotion programs, and began to build infrastructure for health promotion programs. Fifth, the outcomes of health promotion programs by public health centers and private health organizations have been increasing. Finally, training for health promotion personnel and their participation in the program could be the foundation for the higher level of outcome achievement from the health promotion programs. Important challenges for future health promotion would be identification of the determinants and risk factors of health in Korea, establishment of local health promotion plan, building infrastructure for health promotion, creation of specific action model by public health center, development of diverse health promotion programs and health promotion program for the elderly, conducting research for evidence concerning major factors reducing the need for health care through prevention disease activities, and establishment of evaluation and feed back system for health promotion programs.

• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.1-11
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• 2002

Purpose: This study was done to describe the correlation among the older Korean American adults's health-promoting behavior, life satisfaction and self-esteem. Method: The subjects consisted of 183 community-dwelling Korean immigrant elderly living in the state of Washington, USA. The instruments for this study were Health Promoting Lifestyle Profile(47 items), Life Satisfaction Scale(20 items) and Self-Esteem Scale(l0 items). Frequency, percentage, t-test, ANOVA, Duncan test and Pearson's correlation coefficient with SAS program were used to analyze the data. Result: 1) The average item score for the health-promoting behavior was 3.51; the highest score on the subscale was nutrition(M=3.63) with the lowest being exercise(M=3.07). 2) The average item score for the life satisfaction was 3.11. 3) The average item score for the self-esteem was 3.12. 4) Health-promoting behavior was significantly different according to educational level and participation in society circles. 5) Life satisfaction was significantly different according to age, religion and participation in society circles. 6) Self-esteem was significantly different according to age, marital status, religion and participation in society circles. 7) Health-promoting behavior was positively related to life satisfaction and self-esteem. The life satisfaction was positively related to self-esteem. Conclusion: It follows from this study that there is a very correlation among the older Korean American adults's health-promoting behavior, life satisfaction and self-esteem. Therefore health promoting programs that increase life satisfaction and self-esteem should be developed to promote a healthy lifestyle of the older Korean American adults.