• Journal of People, Plants, and Environment
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.565-574
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• 2018

Previous studies have shown that forest therapy program can help prevent dementia. However, few studies have focused on low-income elderly people living alone. The current study examined the meanings that the elderly living alone receiving medical care assigned to the urban forest therapy program, as a way to understand the pathways that nature-based intervention affect preventing dementia. Twenty-one participants were recruited and they participated in a five-week urban forest therapy program. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with 21 participants who experienced the urban forest therapy program, and analyzed qualitative data using thematic analysis. Results showed that all themes identified were related to connectedness with oneself, neighbors and nature. Awarenesses of change were consisted of positive and negative themes. The themes of positive awareness were improvements of mental and emotional condition, feelings of isolation and loneliness, and health-related lifestyle. The negative themes were terminations of short-term programs and inconvenient access to the urban forest. Based on these data, we suggest an urban green welfare framework for future research and interventions for preventing dementia of underprivileged elderly group.

• Journal of The Korea Institute of Healthcare Architecture
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.25-32
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• 2010

Despite the growing interest in recreation as one of the ways to maintain physical and mental health in modern society, access to leisure facility is an issue for individuals with disabilities. This paper identifies inaccessible features to propose the ways to promote participation and usage of the leisure facilities for individuals with disabilities. A survey of individuals with disabilities is conducted to determine preferred leisure facilities depending on types of disabilities. The result of this survey is used to evaluate current condition of regulated National leisure facility and forest, which include barrier-free facilities (e.g. interconnecting zones, interior spaces, lavatories and other facilities), signage, approachable information kiosks, emergency egress, and detectable warnings. The common issues (e.g. guiding mechanism, accessible route, safety factors, and barrier-free facilities/services) in various types of recreational facilities (e.g. forest recreational center, spa and hot springs, Amusement Park, ski resort) were identified and analyzed.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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• v.34 no.6 s.119
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• pp.54-65
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• 2007

There is little research on the exterior spaces or gardens of single detached urban dwellings in Korea because apartments are the general housing type of most inhabitants. However there is an increasing demand for idyllic houses in the urban fringe and for environmentally friendly dwellings or healthy houses that is represented in urban residents gardening activities. The purpose of this research is to analyze residents' preferences and problems in gardening and management of single detached urban dwellings, and to evaluate the possibility of gardens as biotopes. It also addresses the issue of providing public amenities in the urban landscape. One hundred thirty-six dwellings were selected in residential areas of the city of Gwangju. The layout and plant composition, residents' evaluation and understanding of their own gardens, and maintenance and management were investigated. The results indicated that residents associate gardening with mental health and recognized a lack of space as one environmental restriction. Watering was seen as a primary difficulty for maintaining gardens. This research suggests that providing space for gardening could be a tool for participatory community making. When considering the important aspects of gardening, residents responded that gardens offer naturalness, scenic beauty, and practicality and also felt that gardens provide a buffer from environmental pollution and relief from mental duress. Results from the factor analysis using 15 semantic differential variables showed that 'spatial openness', 'natural variety' and 'familiarity' were representative factors. Although a garden is mainly considered as a space for the appreciation of nature with plant material, our results suggest that meaning and environmental symbolism are important elements.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Rural Architecture
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.9-16
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• 2010

As the importance of health and school health grows, the purposes of this research are to investigate the differences between the characteristics and the utilization of the nurse's office of an elementary school in an urban area and the nurse's office of an elementary school in a rural area, and to provide the data for the planning of construction of a nurse's office convenient for students to use after grasping the regional characteristics. The methods of this research include the interview and the survey conducted to the heath teachers after visiting 20 nurse's offices in 13 eups and myeons, and examined and analyzed the differences between the characteristics and the utilization of the nurse's office of elementary schools in an urban area and the nurse's office of an elementary school. The nurse's offices of the elementary schools in Cheongwon, a rural area, are worse in access to health care institutions and in the connection to the placement than those of the elementary schools in urban areas, so most of eups and myeons were not allowed for easy access to medical service. Depending on the bad personal surroundings of each elementary student, mental stress and the lack of heal care of each student should be taken care of along with the educating of the parents and the children. Also because of the difficulties in access to the health care institutions, it is suggested that a lot of support and interest should be provided for the nurse's offices and that a lot of changes with functions should occur to the nurse's offices so that the nurse's office of an elementary school can play the role as a local health care institution. Besides, the health teachers also should be able to provide more professional medical services by taking in-service training courses.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Rural Architecture
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.35-44
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• 2023

This study aimed to understand the driver change of recent research in relation to rural and migrant and draw overarching issues as well as to provide implications to contribute to migrants' social integration in Korean rural areas. As for the scope and method of the study, data through quantitative bibliographic analysis (quantitative data) and research keywords by period were derived. To address the aim this study employed bibliometric analysis utilising netwok mapping interface analysis by VOSviewer and topic modeling analysis by Netminer. The findings were revealed that firstly mental health issues in abroad research and employment and discrimination in domestic research both derived from migrant mobility constituted staple key issues, secondly internal and external research differed two issues in health and violence where Korea has overlooked the issues seriously. Therefore this study presented implications which are about first, health and violence-related sections for migrants should be specified into domestic law, second domestic-focused MIPEX index should be developed in which the two issues are over-weighted and last such newly emerging approach 'inclusive formation of social psychological mechanisms should be widely spread. Concluding remark is that delivering the implications can be foster to migrants' integration in rural area underlining that this will ultimately contribute to migrants' quality of life.

• Journal of The Korea Institute of Healthcare Architecture
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.93-104
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• 2019

Purpose: To establish the building guidelines and to analyze the function of Regional Public Hospitals, the survey was conducted primarily on the current status focusing on the location and relationship of the department, area composition ratio, area per bed, and area per operating room. Methods: The research methods of this paper are as follows. 1) A literature survey on the function of the operating and related departments, 2) A drawing analysis for spatial composition and net area calculation. Results: The area of the Operation Department in the Regional Public Hospitals with 200 to 300 beds are as follows. Area ratio: 3.35%, area per Bed: 2.53㎡/bed, the number of beds per operating room: 64.37bed, area per operating room: 146.46㎡/n, area per operating room by plan type: integration corridor 133.84㎡/n, separation corridor 184.82㎡/n. Implications: This paper analyzed data on the current state of Operation Departments for setting up the function and role for the Regional Public Hospital. In the future, it is also required to provide size that takes into account user behavior and the user's psychological aspect in order to suggest appropriate area.

• Journal of The Korea Institute of Healthcare Architecture
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.25-36
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• 2019

Purpose: To establish guidelines for local public hospitals, the survey was conducted primarily on the current status of local public hospitals, focusing on the zone configuration and the spatial area of the operating department. Methods: 3 Methods have been used in this paper. 1) Analyzing drawings to derive the net floor area of each room. 2) A literature survey about composition of the zone by infection control. 3) Observation survey for user circulation analysis. Results: The operation department consists of the major, secondary, support and connected zones according to the user's actions. The spatial area composition ratio for each zone is major zone: 41.79%, secondary zone: 10.87%, support zone: 23.10%, and connected zone: 24.24%. Implications: This study is a basic research for guideline for the operation department in local public hospitals. In this study, zones configuration of the operation departments are classified in terms of user actions and room functions. In the future, it is required to establish criteria considering infection control and copper connection aspects.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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• v.44 no.6
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• pp.137-147
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• 2016

The purpose of this study was to analyze the perception factors of a pedestrian environment that affect pedestrian environment satisfaction(PES) and determine the relationship between PES and the expected effects of health promotion. The targeted areas of study are neighborhood parks in Suseong-gu, Daegu city. First, regarding the results for the evaluation of pedestrian environment perception, 'Gentle slope' was rated the highest, while factors regarding pedestrian safety such as 'Lots of unpleasant elements', 'Risk from biking and motorcycling' and 'Many obstacles on sidewalks' were rated low. A stepwise regression analysis showed that factors such as 'Fresh air', 'Beautiful scenery', 'Continuity of the sidewalks', 'Various attractions', 'The shade of trees' and 'Lots of unpleasant elements' influenced the PES. Therefore, creating fresh air and shade trees by planting trees and removing unpleasant elements from pedestrian areas are important. Also, it is necessary to cultivate beautiful scenery and attractions through street improvement and improve the continuity of the sidewalks. Finally, in terms of path analysis, PES influenced the frequency of park use, the expected effects of physical and mental health promotion both directly and indirectly.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2024

When situated in green landscapes, water bodies play a crucial role in positively influencing mood and mental health, yet research on the cognitive mechanisms underlying these therapeutic effects is lacking. This study is intended to examine differences in brain function among adult males exposed to forest landscapes with or without water bodies. The wooded landscapes included views of a waterfall, a valley, and a forest without water. The control group was exposed to a local urban landscape. Twelve adult males participated in a field experiment in which prefrontal cortex (PFC) activity was measured using near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS). In the experiment, participants engaged in low-intensity walking in three forested areas with similar vegetation and climatic conditions. Participants showed significant differences in left PFC activity depending on whether they were in the three forested landscapes or in the control landscape (P < 0.01). An analysis of variance (ANOVA) confirmed that significantly lower left PFC activity was recorded in the wooded landscape containing a water view . Notably, the lowest PFC values recorded in the landscape with a waterfall view suggest that landscapes with dynamic water flow may be associated with greater therapeutic benefits in terms of PFC activity than static landscapes. Our results underscore that water is a critical aspect of a landscape due to its therapeutic benefits and should be incorporated in the planning and design of green spaces for health promotion.

• KIEAE Journal
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.3-10
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• 2011

Recently, as sense of crisis about human survival has become serious due to worsening environmental pollution, people have begun to pay attention to their health more and more. In order to improve health conditions, multifarious approaches have been made from such diverse sectors as foods, clothing, medical sciences and environment, and particularly space environmental matters of housing cannot but be a matter of great concern to maintain and enhance the health of the residents. However, scarcely empirical studies have been made from the viewpoint of the users regarding the characteristics of Modern Hanok that has been appreciated as an example of a representative healthy housing. Therefore, this study aimed to study the recognition of apartment residents concerning the health characteristics of Modern Hanok. The health characteristics of Modern Hanok analyzed through literature investigation were classified into three categories of physical, mental and social health, and based on these characteristics, survey was made through web-survey upon 200 apartment residents who have interest in Hanok but have not lived or stayed in Hanok yet. The survey result revealed that about 60% of the respondents have recognized the health characteristics of Modern Hanok, and the respondents recognizing this fact expected that on a comparatively low average level of 2.09 out of 5 the health characteristics of Modern Hanok would affect their health. At current housing market where users' viewpoint and roles function more importantly than ever, the result of this study will contribute to enhance the comprehensive understanding about the health characteristics of Modern Hanok through empirical study on what the users think and expect.