• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.355-364
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• 2011

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate factors that influenced depression of the elderly vulnerable people living alone in the public home visiting health service center. Methods: The participants for this study were 491 Korean elderly men living in G city. Data were collected from February to July, 2011 using structured questionnaires. ${\chi}^2$-test, t-test, Pearson's correlation coefficient and multiple regression with the SPSS/WIN program were used to analyze the data. Results: The levels of ADL and IADL of the elderly living alone were higher, and the levels of social support and life satisfaction were lower than the normal elderly. Depression was positively related to ADL and IADL and negatively to social support and life satisfaction in the elderly living alone. In addition, age, fall experience, ADL, IADL and life satisfaction had influence on the depression. Conclusion: The elderly living alone are in a more serious health status, especially in depression than the normal elderly. It is necessary to develop depression controlling intervention programs in order to promote healthy lifestyles for the elderly vulnerable people living alone.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.129-142
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• 2008

This study examines how economic and psychological characteristics affect the quality of life (QoL) of elderly individuals age 60 and older, who live in the Seoul-metropolitan area. Relationships among socio-demographic status, economic conditions, psychological characteristics, family life, health status, and QoL are examined by t-test and ANOVA(Duncan's test as post hoc multiple comparisons), and the multiple regression analysis is used to estimate QoL determinants in the elderly. The major findings of the study are as follows. First, younger age, higher education levels, better health status, harmonious family relations, higher levels of household income, lower levels of loneliness, and higher self-esteems are related to higher QoL levels. Second, the impacts of factors on QoL are differentiated according to tercile groups that divide monthly allowance of respondents into three categories: below normal (threshold amount below 21MW), near normal (threshold amount between 21MW and 35MW), and above normal (threshold amount above 35MW). For each tercile group, poor health status or higher loneliness have negative effects on QoL, while harmonious family relationship has a positive effect. For the below-normal group, years of education or self-esteem have positive effects, while age or retirement status have negative effects when controlling for other factors. For the near-normal group, being married, or perceived financial insecurity create lower QoL levels, while higher self-esteem increases QoL levels. For the above-normal group, being widowed, employed, or retired have positive effects on QoL, when controlling for other variables. Third, even among elderly with high allowances, the effects of health status and family relationship are significant determinants that explain QoL levels. This result suggests that, for te elderly, poor health status and poor family relationships severely decrease QoL in later life, regardless of economic condition.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.69-76
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• 2018

The elderly are at increased risk of developing dysphagia due to aging and illnesses. The aim of the current study was to analyze, via an acoustic study, the change in the voice quality of normal elderly people after a 3oz water-swallow test. Subjects included a group of 60 normal elderly people (age: $mean{\pm}SD=76.9{\pm}6.66$) and 60 healthy young adults (age: $mean{\pm}SD=25.1{\pm}2.36$). Every participant produced a five-second /a/ phonation pre- and post-swallowing, and the fractioned two-second sections were analyzed using the MDVP (multi dimensional voice program) analysis. The elderly group demonstrated a post-swallowing increase in the following related acoustic parameters: fundamental frequency, fundamental frequency variation, amplitude-variation, and noise in both two-second sections. However, the younger group showed an increase only in frequency related acoustic parameters (i.e., STD ) in the first two-second section. The significant changes in values in the post-swallowing parameters might indicate temporary irregularities in pitch and amplitude along with higher amounts of noise in the voice. The results could be attributed to water residues in the vocal fold and vocal tract, as well as a deterioration of the motor and sensory functions caused by anatomical and physiological changes that result from aging.

• Anxiety and mood
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.128-133
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• 2007

Objective : Obesity has been considered to be associated with numerous physical, mental and psychological diseases. Depression, which is a major psychological factor affecting occurrence and treatment of obesity, can be a cause of obesity as well as can be triggered by obesity. This study aimed to find out the need of positive consideration to the existence of depressive mood in the management of obesity. Methods : A total of 101 subjects were enrolled among those who were 60 years old and over at one local clinic. Obese group (n=49) was defined as BMI${\geqq}$25 and normal weight group (n=52) as 20$5.2{\pm}2.5$) was significantly higher than that of the normal weight group ($3.8{\pm}1.7$)(p<0.05). In male subjects, there was no significant difference in the mean GDSSF-K score between both groups, but in female subjects, the mean GDSSF-K score of the obese group, $6.4{\pm}2.6$ was significantly higher than that of the normal weight group ($4.0{\pm}1.8$)(p<0.05). Conclusion : The elderly obese group showed higher depressive scale score than elderly normal weight group, especially in female elderly. Since the elderly obese female group had a depressive predisposition, comprehensive management including mental and psychological approach is required in obesity control programs.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.3-12
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• 2014

Larynx plays an important role in phonation and protection of the respiratory tract during swallowing. The reduced anatomical and physiological function in elevation of larynx and glottis closure can cause problems in voice and swallowing. The present study investigated the Korean version of handicap index of dysphagia in elderly Koreans. Therefore, 60 normal elderly Koreans ranged from 65 to 95 and 20 normal Korean young adults aged from 20 to 25 were participated in this study to compare total (T), physical (P), functional (F), and emotional (E) index scores between two groups as well as among sub groups (60s, 70s, 80s) in elderly. For swallowing, total and sub dysphagia handicap index (DHI) scores, voice quality during /a/phonation following swallowing (saliva and water), intensity of coughing, and L-DDK were measured. The results showed that functional (P), physical (P), emotional (E) scores as well as total (T) score were significantly different between young adults and old adults in DHI(p<.05). Additionally, there was a negative correlation between total DHI score and intensity of coughing (r=-.51) as well as L-DDK (r=-.70). These findings suggest that a slow rate in vocal fold adduction and reduced intensity of coughing in the elderly affect swallowing function. Thus, recently translated Korean version of DHI may be useful as supplement in evaluating the swallowing problems in elderly people.

• Journal of Platform Technology
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.36-43
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• 2021

Stroke disease is one of the leading causes of death worldwide, and in particular, it is the most important causative disease that causes disability in the elderly. Since stroke disease often causes death or serious disability, active primary prevention and early detection of prognostic symptoms are very important. In particular, it is necessary to detect and accurately predict stroke prognostic symptoms in daily life and prompt diagnosis and treatment by medical staff. In recent studies, image analysis such as computed tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is mostly used as a methodology for predicting prognostic symptoms in stroke patients. However, this approach has limitations in terms of long test time and high cost. In this paper, we experimented with clinical data on how stroke disease affects foot pressure in elderly in walking. Experiments have shown that there is a significant difference in * p < .05 in 12 cells between the stroke elderly and the normal elderly during walking. As a result, it is significant that we found a significant difference in the gait patterns in daily life of the stroke elderly and the normal elderly.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.422-434
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• 2022

Objectives: With an increase in the population of the elderly in Korea, their nutritional status has become a cause for concern. This study was designed to compare the nutritional intake and health status of the Korean elderly according to their body mass index. Methods: The subjects were 3,274 elderly people aged 65 and above who had participated in the 2016-2018 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. The subjects were divided into four groups: underweight, normal, overweight, and obese, based on their BMI. The general characteristics, daily energy, and nutrient intakes, nutrient intakes compared to the recommended nutrient intake, percentage of participants whose nutrient intake was lower than the estimated average requirement (EAR), index of nutrient quality, the mean adequacy ratio (MAR), intakes by food group, and health status of the four groups were compared. Results: Underweight elderly people showed lower energy, lipids, dietary fiber, vitamin C, riboflavin, niacin, phosphorus, sodium, and potassium intake and MAR score (P < 0.001) compared to the normal or obese elderly. The mean protein, riboflavin, niacin, vitamin C, phosphorus, and iron intake of the underweight elderly was lower than the EAR (P < 0.05). Underweight elderly people also had a lower intake of vegetables and fats, oil and sweets food groups than the other groups (P < 0.001). The prevalence of diabetes and dyslipidemia was higher in the obese group, but the percentage of anemia was higher in the underweight group. Conclusions: Underweight elderly people were vulnerable to undernutrition and were at a higher risk of anemia.

• The Korean Journal of Rehabilitation Nursing
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.169-178
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• 2004

Purpose: This study examined the health status of elderly. Method: This is a survey using cross-sectional design. The subject were 122 elders who were 65 and over in Daejeon. Instrumental activity of daily living, nutrition and Body mass index for physical health status, social engagement for social health status, and depression and loneliness for emotional health status were measured. Results: Independent level was medium, and nutrition and BMI were normal level. Social engagement score was 2.38 which means low. Mean depression level was 7.71 and mean loneliness level was 56.77, which means high. The risk factors for vulnerable health status were no spouse, lower pocket money, living at institution, poor subjective health status. Conclusion: This finding indicates that the elderly subjects were in normal physical health status, but social and emotional health status were poor.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.11 no.6
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• pp.203-208
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• 2020

This study examined whether Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) is related to the reduction of specific memory among linguistic memory and visuospatial memory, and to identify the most predictive index for discriminating MCI from normal elderly. The subjects were analyzed for 189 elderly (103 healthy elderly, 86 MCI). The verbal memory was used by the Seoul Verbal Learning Test. visuospatial memory was measured using the Rey Complex Figure Test. As a result of multiple logistic regression, verbal memory and visuospatial memory showed significant predictive performance in discriminating MCI from normal elderly. On the other hand, when all the confounding variables were corrected, including the results of each memory test, the predictive power was significant in distinguishing MCI from normal aging only in the immediate recall of verbal memory, and the predictive power was not significant in the immediate recall of visuospatial memory. This result suggests that delayed recall of visuospatial memory and immediate recall of verbal memory are the best combinations to discriminate memory ability of MCI.

• Journal of Oriental Neuropsychiatry
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.401-408
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• 2017

Objectives: The purpose of this study is to obtain the differential variable and learning effect of the serial position effect, targeting individuals aged 60 years and over. A total of 89 individuals were categorized into the following groups: Alzheimer's group, vascular dementia group, elderly depression group, and normal group. Methods: Considering the size of the groups used for comparison, of the total 89 participants, 28 were in the Alzheimer's group, 24 in the vascular dementia group, 16 in the elderly depression group, and 21 were randomly chosen for the normal group. In the CERAD-K word list memory test, 10 words were shown to the subjects. We then asked them to freely recall the words. After changing the order of the words three times, the same process was followed. Results: First, a significant difference was observed among the groups in terms of word recalling rate. The analysis conducted afterward showed that, as predicted, the depressed group showed significantly better performance in recalling the words. Second, the vascular dementia patients and the Alzheimer's patients showed, as predicted, better recall of the largest recency region of words shown. Third, the normal group and the elderly depressed group showed a high-performance rate, proving that the reiterative method can contribute to the recalling process. Thus, we demonstrated that the Alzheimer's group showed the deterioration of short memory recalling skills and the elderly depressed showed deteriorated output performance skill.