• Korea journal of population studies
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.167-187
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• 2000

The rates and numbers of elderly suicide in Korea have been increased during 1985-1998. This indicates the seriousness of the problems which the elderly are faced with. So many late-life problems may push older people across the edges. Those in unbearable situations may call out fur helps, they may try to cope with various ways, or they may commit suicides. Because it is widely believed that suicide among the elderly can be understood as a personal solution or alternative to late-life problems in old age, the elderly\`s suicides seem to be an appropriate indicator in estimating seriousness of late-life problems. A comparison of the history of suicide research with other populations shows that the several late-life problems have been found with placing an individual elder at risks for increasing suicidal behaviors Research has identified such problems as financial insecurity, retirement, loss of social roles, physical illness, lack of social supports, and loneliness as the problems that increase the incidence of suicidal behavior. Though it is difficult far us to explain and understand the phenomenon of the elderly\`s suicide because of its complexity, we need to ascertain problems and social conditions behind suicides and also to prepare for some appropriate policy-tasks in light of social welfare for the aged, through examining the phenomenon. For explaining the elderly\`s suicide, the theoretical orientations are based on sociological perspectives in the paper. From the standpoints of social integration theory and exchange theory, this study is to examine the relationship between late-life problems and suicide. These two may have been fruitfully employed in conjunction with each other. Finally, this study would identify urgent late-life problems related with the elderly\`s suicide and suggest the relevant policies for Korean elders. Sometime in the near future, the government should be required to provide social welfare programs for the elderly, particularly for those at risk for increasing suicidal behaviors.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.20 no.12
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• pp.314-321
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• 2019

Based on data obtained from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES) conducted by Korea Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (KCDC), this study analyzed the relationship between existence of the spouse, number of family members, and disease afflictions of the Korean elderly, and factors affecting their quality of life. The collected data were analyzed by Chi-square test, t-test and One-way Anova, using the SPSS / WIN 25. Our comparative analysis on the health status and quality of life revealed that individuals in the singles group had significantly more diseases than the married group. The singles group considered their health was subjectively poor, whereas the quality of life of the married group was higher. Analyzing the characteristics of chronic disease and activity restriction showed significantly higher prevalence of several diseases in the singles group. Besides, the singles group revealed significantly higher limitations of activity. Taken together, our results reveal a difference in the health status, quality of life, and the presence of chronic diseases in accordance to existence of the spouse, indicating that having a spouse increases the level of health and quality of life of the elderly.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.37 no.5
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• pp.827-835
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• 2017

With the rapid progress of ageing several issues concurrently occur, and one important social issue that must be resolved is accidents involving Elderly drivers. Efforts to reduce the frequency of such accidents is a must in order to be prepared to face a superaged society. Currently people aged 65 or older are prescribed as an "Elderly person." Therefore, various studies concerning accidents involving Elderly drivers apply this age criteria to separate regular drivers and Elderly drivers. However, there is no criteria to practically discern Elderly drivers with certain physical features as vulnerable road users based on a level of acceptable accuracy. Therefore, this studies intends to compare the possibility of accidents by age group of Elderly drivers by correlation analysis to analyze the accident characteristics by age group. Results showed that for drivers aged 75 and older, their influence on major accident characteristics by vehicle type increased with higher age groups. In particular, passenger cars had a relatively low accident frequency rate for drivers aged between 70 and 80, but for drivers aged 75 to 84, they had higher influence on accidents for the same vehicle type. This demonstrates that as ageing progresses and the average life expectancy increases, the age span of elders continues to increase, meaning that characteristics differ by age group among the aged. This study confirmed that the influence on the possibility of accidents differs by age group among the aged.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.28-38
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• 2000

Purpose : This study examined characteristics of, problems of and services provided to hospice recipients and their family members at a home hospice organization. Methods : The subjects were 113 people who were discharged from one free-standing home hospice organization between November, 1994 and lune, 1999. Since the opening of the organization in November of 1994, it has provided hospice services at patients' homes with no charge. Data were collected from those subjects' records. Results : The average age of the subjects was 57.1 years; those aged 60 and over were 54%. Spouse was the most frequent(50.9%) primary caregiver followed by daughter-in-law and daughter. All the subjects were diagnosed as having cancer. Of those 41 subjects who did not know their terminal stage in the beginning, 31 subjects came to know their states. Of the subjects, 72.7% were referred from their physicians. On the average, the service duration and the number of home visits were 6.8 weeks and 7.2 times, respectively. Pain was the most prevalent problem of the subjects(89.4%). Medication management was the most frequently provided service followed by psychological supports. The reasons for discharge were death(88.5%) and refusal(8%). Home was the most frequent place of death(60%). Conclusion Home hospice service providers should be trained particularly in working with elders and in managing cancer pain. People need to be referred at an appropriate time for achieving goals of hospice. Community recognition of hospice services needs to be promoted.

• Journal of Korean Home Economics Education Association
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.131-144
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• 1998

The lack of characteristical understanding of the Home Economics Education will have difficulty in achieving the goal of the Home Economics Education. To allow the Home Economics Education class in school contribute toward the enhancement of the quality of life, it is inevitable to reinforce the recognition of the importance and necessity of the Home Economics Education and to newly propose a directional guidance forward the coming 21st century. The purpose of this study was to provide basic data for planners of the future Home Economics Education by surveying research administrators in charge of programming the overall school curriculum. This study was conducted under the following procedure to have the outcome as follows ; 1. Answers from respondents of age over 50 or careers over 16 years tended to grasp the goal of Home Economics Education in relation to the enhancement of quality of life rather than to the accumulation of knowledge, skill or capacity. 2. Of all the surveyed, 9.64% regarded Home Economics Education as an essential part of school education and the positive ratio was higher with younger respondents. 3. To the question asking if the high school Home Economics Education could have influence on one's capacity, 97.2% of the answerers said yes. The respondents with career under 15 year showed 100% of positive agreement in this matter and of age under 40 marked much higher ratio of 98.84% than the elders. 4. The overall recognition of the necessity for separate sections in Home Economics Education programmed in accordance with the 6th Revision of High School Curriculum displayed a considerably high ratio, with a little differences among age and job groups. The purpose of this study is to analyze and understand adolescents'culture, thereby to provide fundamental information for Preventive Education for Adolescents'Problems in Home Economic Education. 745 articles collected in computer communication service were used for the analysis. The data were analyzed by frequency and percentage using the SPSS/PC+computer program. The most important results of this study were as follows ; 1) Concerning 'Adolescent's Problems's, problems such as violence, homicide and robbery were treated with the greatest frequency. It was also analyzed that the older generations are highly inclined to understand adolescents'culture as a negative one, for example, 'delinquency'or 'immaturity'. 2) Although the area of 'Adolescents'Education'was treated most frequently reflecting the high educational concern in our society, the significant part of those articles were on wrongful educational administration. As much as 70.6% of the articles analyzed were on 'Education'and 'Problems'. Thereby it may be concluded that the other areas such as health, activities, worries, values and harmful environments ere treated respectively as only a 'subculture'or'fragmentary culture'. The articles containing correlations and interactions among them and certain alternative proposals were very rare. 3) The areas such as 'Worries and Counselling'and 'Health'were occupying only a small portion of the articles. The articles which were treating the practical worries and their resolutions were even rarer. 4) 'Values'of the adolescents tended to be viewed by the older generations very negatively. It was also found that the older generations gave the tendency to see the 'consumption culture'of the adolescents as a kind of 'counter culture'or'subculture'.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.101-109
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• 2011

Purpose: The Assessing Care Of Vulnerable Elders project has developed indicators for the quality of the end-of-life (EOL) care. However, family members of cancer patients may have a different view on the quality indicators (QIs) established by health care experts. We evaluated the QIs from the family members' perspective. Methods: The information used in this study was gathered by surveying family members of cancer patients who were admitted to the inpatient hospice ward in Korea. A cross-sectional anonymous questionnaire was distributed to 120 potential respondents from July to October 2009. We included 69 responses in this study (effective response rate, 57.5%). Statistical analysis was performed by using SPSS for Win ver. 14.0, with independent t-test and Pearson's chi-square test. Results: Among QIs for good hospice care, families agreed the most on "Medical examination by the palliative care team or specialist" (88.4%) and "Dying in the family's presence" (88.4%). They agreed the least on "Discussing cardiopulmonary resuscitation with patients" (15.9%). Among QIs for bad hospice care, "Occurrence of fall or pressure ulcer are undesirable" showed the highest agreement rate (94.2%). The lowest agreement rate was 11.6% on "Dying in the hospital is undesirable." In addition, women, patients who were aware of their prognoses, and people with a high socioeconomic status tended to agree more on the QIs. Conclusion: Patients' families did not agree on some of the QIs recommended by previous studies. Family members' characteristics were related to their opinions on QIs.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.71-84
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• 2013

Objectives: As suicide among the elderly population has been a critical issue in Korea, this study aimed to evaluate correlations of suicidal ideation with protective and risk factors among elderly who reside in a rural community. Methods: A total of 157 elders from Gyeongju city, who had attended senior centers in, were enrolled to answer questionnaires including the Geriatric Depression Scale Short Form-Korea and the Scale for Suicidal Ideation. Data were analyzed using SPSS 18.0K for Windows, and included t-test, Pearson correlation, and a three-step hierarchical multiple regression analyses. Results: Using the hierarchical regression analyses for predicting the elderly's suicidal ideation, male gender and social group variables were entered as predictors in the first step(adjusted $R^2$=0.107, P<0.05). Pain, ADLs, family support variables were not entered in the second step. Depression variable was the only predictor in the third step(adjusted $R^2$=0.384, P<0.001). Conclusions: Although this study confirmed the impact of depression on the suicidal ideation, elderly with risk factors including male gender and social isolation should receive a special attention from community health care professionals.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.129-139
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• 2016

Objective: The purpose of this study was to identify the predictors and frailty level in the frail elderly receiving home visiting health care services. Methods: The subjects were 177 frail elders aged over 65 registered in the home visiting health care services of three public health centers in Daegu. The data collection was performed from June 9 to June 24, 2015. This study used descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA, scheffe test and stepwise multiple regression by SPSS Win 18.0 program. Results: The mean of the frailty score was 10.05 (${\pm}4.52$). Age and life satisfaction were the significant factors related to the frailty score in frail elderly. Health promotion behavior, empowerment, social participation and perceived health status had a negative correlation with the frailty score. Thirty seven point four percent of the variance in the frailty score can be explained by perceived health status (${\beta}=-0.398$, p<0.001), health promotion behavior (${\beta}=-0.251$, p<0.001) and age (${\beta}=0.232$, p<0.001)(Cum $R^2=0.374$, F=25.744, p<0.001). Perceived health status was the most important factor related to the frailty score in our study. Conclusions: An integrative care program which includes these significant variables of subjects is essential to prevent the deterioration of frailty in frail elderly.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare Studies
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• v.44 no.3
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• pp.57-83
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• 2013

There has neither been enough research on how to approach the concept of active aging through an integrated view nor an examination to verify the relationship between preparation for old age and active aging in later life. Therefore, this research aims to verify that the elderly, who have prepared for their later life, affected their active aged life. In addition, by setting up self-efficacy and social support as mediator in the research model, this paper looks into the psycho-social resource mechanism of the relationship in depth. In order to verify the correlation of two variables, the Seoul welfare panel data, a mediating model structured by psycho-social resources created by Seoul welfare foundation in 2010, was used. The total sample size was a group of 1,492 elders aged over 65. When it came to our research methods, structured equation analysis was applied to verify the mediating effect and theoretical background. The results revealed that physical preparation, financial preparation, social preparation and leisure preparation directly affected their active aging level positively, thus, psycho-social resources showed a partial mediating effect between preparation for old age of the past and active aging level. The research implications are as follows. First, this research makes an effort to approach the concept of preparation for old age with an integrated perspective through making a construct by entire preparation types. Second, it will attempt to verify the relationship between preparation for old age in the past and active aging in terms of multi-dimension is meaningful. Third, this research reveals the function of psycho-social resource, self-efficacy and social support within the relationship. As far as the partial mediating effect is concerned, preparation for old age education for the middle-aged class should be modified as a decent field to enhance of the elderly.

• 한국노년학
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.221-240
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• 2010

Despite a growing trend in elder mistreatment, research about the problem and its effects on the victims has been sparse. Notably missing are the perspectives of older adults themselves, whose perceptions and responses to elder mistreatment are greatly affected by social and cultural context. The purpose of this study is to examine factors associated with older persons' perceptions of elder mistreatment and subsequent help-seeking behaviors. Six hypothetical scenarios featuring elders were the basis of interviews with 124 older persons, drawn by a quota sampling strategy. Findings indicated that older persons perceived situations of physical abuse (87.9%), financial abuse (86.3%), and psychological abuse (66.1%) to be elder mistreatment, yet respondents showed less sensitivity to elder mistreatment that took the form of physical mistreatment within a couple (47.6%), neglect (40.3%), and self-neglect (16.9%). Certain scenarios yielded less intention to seek help: namely, physical mistreatment within a couple, neglect, and self-neglect. Older persons' personal characteristics, social factors, and cultural factors exerted significant influence on both perception and help-seeking behavior. Perception was identified as a key factor that significantly influenced help-seeking behavior. Findings point to awareness of cultural and social context for success in elder mistreatment prevention, intervention, and policy design for this population.