• Journal of Korean Gerontological Nursing
• /
• v.20 no.sup1
• /
• pp.127-136
• /
• 2018

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the possibility of using intelligent robot based nursing practice as discussed in previous research and also, to propose directions for robot care for elders. Methods: For this study 28 previous researches using robots in health care field were reviewed and related research trends introduced. Results: Robot applications in the healthcare field were mainly for rehabilitation, surgery, interaction, and nursing assistance through robotics. Especially types of robot include pet type robots, humanoid robots, surgical robots, rehabilitation robots, robot suit and entertainment robots with monitors. The research participants were patients with dementia and institutionalized elderly people. It was found that a human-robot interaction was effective from physical, mental, emotional and social aspects. Conclusion: Robots can be used for various purposes such as nursing assistance, patient health promotion and education. It is necessary to reduce the human burden of care work using robots and to introduce robot care programs which can meet the needs of elders. Therefore, korean nurses should make efforts to change their practice to new geriatric nursing through repeated research based on the scientific data.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Fundamentals of Nursing
• /
• v.19 no.2
• /
• pp.179-189
• /
• 2012

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify the effects of eating habits, activities of daily living and health behaviors on oral health related-quality of life in elders. Methods: The sample consisted of 246 people 65 years or older. Data were analyzed using frequency, percentage, average standard deviation, t-test, ANOVA, Scheff$\acute{e}$, Pearson Correlation Analysis and Hierarchical Multiple Regression. Results: The control variables such as gender, presence of a spouse, subjective health status, presence of chronic disease and existing number of teeth explained 14% (F=7.76, p<.001) of variance in oral health related-quality of life. The control variables, eating habits, activities of daily living and health behaviors collectively explained 20% of variance in oral health related quality of life. Conclusions: The factors that influence oral health related quality of life were presence of spouse presence factor, existing number of teeth and health behavior. Therefore, oral health related quality of life of elders requires the development of programs to boost the quality of life, and help the elderly people to maintain existing number of teeth by focusing on the variety of characteristics.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
• /
• v.41 no.3
• /
• pp.411-422
• /
• 2011

Purpose: The aim of this study was to clarify the actual condition of elders with dementia who were registered in the Seoul Dementia Management Project. Methods: Data were collected from 5,312 elderly patients with dementia. Demographic included characteristics, comorbidity, and healthy lifestyle habits; data from the Seoul Dementia Management Project. Results: First, demographic characteristics were as follows; mean age at the time of definite diagnosis was 78.0 yr. There were slightly more women (69.3%), and 4.55 yr was the average length of education with 41.4% being illiterate or uneducated patients. Second, there were several comorbidities including hypertension (61.7%), diabetes mellitus (31.8%), hypercholesterolemia (10.2%), heart disease (11.1%), obesity (4.2%), and stroke (21.4%). Third, alcoholic history was found in 11.8% of the patients, and smoking in 9.8%. Regular exercise was done by only 29.1% of the patients with dementia. Finally, significant differences between men and women were found for the following; age, education, medical security, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, stroke, alcoholic consumption, smoking, and regular exercise. Conclusion: Authors expect that the present data will be used for establishment of dementia associated projects and policies.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
• /
• v.44 no.6
• /
• pp.697-707
• /
• 2014

Purpose: The purposes of this study was to develop a comprehensive community-based fall prevention program and to test the effects of the program on the muscle strength, postural balance and fall efficacy for elderly people. Methods: The design of this study was a nonequivalent control group pretest-posttest design. There were 28 participants in the experimental group and 29 in the control group. The program consisted of balance exercises, elastic resistance exercises and prevention education. The program was provided five times a week for 8 weeks and each session lasted 90 minutes. Data were analyzed using ${\chi}^2$-test, independent t-test and paired t-test using the SPSS program. Results: Muscle strength of the lower extremities, postural balance and fall efficacy scores significantly improved in the experimental group compared to the control group. Conclusion: These results suggest that this program can improve lower extremity muscle strength, postural balance and fall efficacy in elders. Therefore, this program is recommended for use in fall prevention programs for elders living in the community.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
• /
• v.23 no.2
• /
• pp.222-230
• /
• 2012

Purpose: This research is to understand the effects of senior simulation on employees of elderly care facilities and utilize it in their job training. Methods: This research is a nonequivalence control group pre-to-post quasiexperiment research. 18 employees who have experienced senior simulation are set as test group and 18 other employees who have not experienced senior simulation are set as control group. Results: The hypothesis that 'the test group which has experienced senior simulation will show a positive change in their attitude on elderly care, compared to the control group' and 'the test group which has experienced senior simulation will show a positive change in understanding of elders, compared to the control group' was supported. The hypothesis that 'the test group which has experienced senior simulation will show a positive change in job satisfaction and performance of duties, compared to the control group' was dismissed. Conclusion: The senior simulation seems to contribute to elderly care facilities employees' change in their viewpoints of elders and broaden their understanding of them. The senior simulation was meaningful to provide basic help with implementing job training programs.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
• /
• v.21 no.4
• /
• pp.489-501
• /
• 2010

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of health behavior-related characteristics, self-esteem, activities of daily living, and family support on depression in the community-dwelling elderly. Methods: The participants were 229 elders sampled from Seoul and other five provinces. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data, and data were analyzed by applying t-test, ANOVA, Pearson correlation coefficient, and stepwise multiple regression with SAS 8.12. Results: There was a negative correlation between depression, MMSE-K, self-esteem, ADL, IADL, and family support. Depression and health behavior-related characteristics showed a significant difference according to stress level and the reason of stress. Major factors that affected the elders depression were self-esteem, the amount of alcohol drinking, sleeping hours, ADL and the cognition of health status, which explained 59.4%. Conclusion: Based on the findings of this study, self-esteem and health behavior-related characteristics including alcohol drinking, sleeping hours and ADL were the influencing factors of depression in the community-dwelling elderly. Therefore, effective psychological and physical health promotion methods need to be developed and applied in nursing interventions to prevent depression in the community-dwelling elderly.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
• /
• v.21 no.2
• /
• pp.252-262
• /
• 2010

Purpose: Designed to examine the effects of aerobic exercise therapy on elders' physical functions. Methods: Selected from an elderly welfare center in an agricultural district located in N City. Thirty seven elders were selected in the experimental group and 38 in the control group, and all the subjects aged over 65. Collected data were statistically analyzed by SPSS/PC 12.0 Win. Detailed data analysis methods were Chi-square, Fisher's exact test, Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, t-test, Mann-Whitney u-test, paired t-test, and Wilcoxon's rank sum test. Results: The first hypothesis "The experimental group who had the aerobic exercise therapy will have greater development in lower leg muscular strength compared to the control group" was supported (t=8.95, p<.001). The second hypothesis "Aerobic exercise therapy participants will show greater development in lower leg endurance" was supported (t=6.12, p<.001). The third hypothesis "Aerobic exercise therapy participants will show greater development in flexibility" was supported (U=49.00, p<.001). The forth hypothesis "Aerobic exercise therapy participants will show greater development in balance" was supported (U=322.00, p<.001). Conclusion: The aerobic exercise therapy showed positive effects on physical functions of the elderly in a rural area.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
• /
• v.28 no.4
• /
• pp.450-462
• /
• 2017

Purpose: This study aims to investigate the effects of an intervention of self-feeding for elderly residents who were eating with assistance or eating by himself/herself with spilling food. Methods: The Participants were 11 elderly people and 6 formal caregivers from 7 nursing homes in Korea. The intervention was to use the spoon and chopstick sets designed for compensating the weakened eating function. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected through observation, structured questions, and in-depth interviews. Results: The mealtime was significantly increased by 3.2 minutes (p=.011) after the intervention. Three themes were extracted for the meaning of self-feeding expressed by the elders; fighting alone for self-feeding, pride of participating in the study, and burden for self-feeding and research participation. Caregivers expressed the meaning of the elder's self-feeding such as the regret of missed chances, facilitating rehabilitation, the increase of the eating pleasure and quality of care, and ambivalence. Conclusion: Self-feeding has become an opportunity to recognize life values for the elders in nursing homes; for the caregivers, to reconsider caring of the elderly. Posture and eating utensils were also important to improve self-feeding skills.

• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
• /
• v.36 no.11
• /
• pp.73-90
• /
• 1998

During the period of 1950s and 1960s extreme changes in political, economic, social and cultural environments had a great influence on family ethics, since the western civilization had been introduced to this nation in late 19th century. This paper studied the family ethics during the above periods by interviewing elders(average age 77) who had couple relations at that time focusing the followings. During the period, ① what is the view of family? ② what are the actual sapects and characteristics of married couple ethics? ③ what are the actual aspects and characteristics of the ethics between parents and their children? The results of this study are as follows; ① The indispensable requisite of the parents is a son who functions as the tool for enhancing social position of their family rather than succession of them. The nuclear family is regraded ideal, but the concept of nuclear family of them is far different from that of western. ② The married couples accepts the given couple relations in the name of bringing up their children. The ideal image of wife is traditional wifely virtues and that of husband is ability of making money. ③ The parents emphasize education and success of their children for enhancing the social position of their family, while they still require some degree of moral standards to their children. The parents believe that the best filial piety is making good lives of their children's own, which is somewhat different from the traditional filial piety norm.

• The Korean Journal of Rehabilitation Nursing
• /
• v.12 no.2
• /
• pp.102-111
• /
• 2009

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore the meaning of the life experiences of the elderly in their leisure activities. It was done to provide fundamental data for nursing programs dealing with the elders. Method: The research took a phenomenological approach to the study. Eight participants, who were having leisure activities in the community, were observed thoroughly from September to November in 2008. The data were collected through in-depth interviews and observations. By using Giorgi's phenomenological method, the data were analyzed in a qualitative way. Results: There were ten main themes that the health professionals should consider when dealing with the elderly: Changes in physical health conditions, Decreased role and less social interaction, Loneliness, Longing for and recalling of the past, Acknowledgement and acceptance of aging and death, Affection towards one's life, Yearning for a dignified life, Active health management, Enthusiastic participation in leisure activities, and Positive outlook and mindset. Conclusion: This study explored how the elderly people adjusted to the physical, psychological and social changes that they experienced. On the basis of the results, further research for the elders in other settings is needed to develop comprehensive programs that will improve their quality of life.