• Journal of Korean Physical Therapy Science
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.25-36
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• 2002

Objectives: This study was conducted to find out risk factors related to elderly hip fracture, so that the result could provide basic data to establish prevention programs for hip fracture among the elderly. Methods: The data were collected from 199 cases hospitalized in 4 university hospitals in Pusan from January, 1996 to December, 1998, 193 healthy controls who visited elderly facilities in Pusan. The data were obtained from medical records and by using questionnaires through telephone contact or direct personal interview with the subjects or their family, and were analyzed for 2-test and multiple logistic regression. The risk factors were shown with odds ratios and their 95% confidence intervals. Results: In univariate analysis, the odds ratio of hip fracture risk was estimated to be 1.9 for the elderly aged 75 years as compare with those aging less than 65 years; 42 for those with job as compared with those without job; 3.3 for those with more than 6 children as compared with those with one or two children. For the variables related to physical characteristics, small height (p=0.015), light weight (p=0.000), and low BMI (p=0.014) were risk factors for elderly hip fracture. Sane variables related to health, such as previous history of illness (OR=3.3.), abnormal blood pressure (OR=1.6), previous fracture history (OR=22), lower limbs weakness (OR=12.1) and gait disturbance (OR=42.6), were significantly associated with the risk of hip fracture. In multiple logistic regression, risk factors for hip fracture were age, having job, lower limb weakness and previous history of illness. The adjusted odds ratios of hip fracture risk among the elderly were age (OR=1.1), having jobs (OR=11.7), weak lower limb (OR=10.8) and previous history of illnesses (OR=3.3), respectively. Conclusion: This study suggests that the plan for improving the daily living environment for the elderly systematically should be implemented to avoid the chances of fall, and that programs encouraging to practice regular exercise for physical activity and to promote health of the elderly should be developed.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.40 no.5
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• pp.337-344
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• 2007

Objectives: This study was performed to investigate the level of quality of life (QOL) and to identify its related factors among the elderly using a hall for the aged. Methods: The study subjects were 350 elderly people living in Nam Gu, Gwangju City. They were interviewed by questionnaire to collect information on social-demographic characteristics, health behaviors, health-related characteristics and QOL. We used statistical analysis methods such as T-test, ANOVA and multiple regression analysis to find which factors affected QOL. Results: The characteristics relating to physical functions were as follows: presence of spouse, education, alcohol drinking, teeth condition, arthritis, frequency of visiting the hall for the aged, and depression. Age, arthritis and depression were significantly related to role limitation due to physical problems. General health was related to gender, age, and depression, and vitality was related to education, frequency of visiting the hall, and depression. Role limitation due to emotional problems was related to age and depression, and mental health was related to age, hypertension, arthritis and depression. Conclusions: This study showed QOL of the elderly was significantly influenced by socio-demographic factors, and physical or emotional conditions. To improve QOL of the elderly, we need to develop programs to promote health and to manage chronic diseases of the elderly.

• Korea Science and Art Forum
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• v.20
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• pp.267-277
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• 2015

The whole world enters the ageing era and 'lifelong education' is issued where the elderly can learn knowledge and techniques caused by era-change. Museum is a cultural public-facility and taking roles to provide education with spatial composition of contents and articles at exhibition. Therefore, museum can be a learning space for the elderly, performance of learning, environmental support to museum is required considering their physical characteristics. This study aims to develop a environmental design checklist at museum and to provide a frame for environmental plans to support the elderly for smooth watching of exhibition and education at museum. The environmental design checklist at museum was drawn for the spaces for entry, exhibition, public-service, educational activity and movement at museum, based on physical characteristics of the elderly or the criteria of 'sense (eye-sight, hearing and feeling by tough)' / 'exercise (skeleton, movement, physical strength and muscular strength). The environmental design checklist at museum for the elderly was composed newly by combining existing related acts, manuals, and preceded studies. For future studies, actual survey items at site and questionnaires for the elderly watchers were drawn.

• Korean Institute of Interior Design Journal
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.188-198
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• 2013

Advancement toward aging society has presented the importance of house planning in consideration of the elderly, increasing the necessity of such planning. Therefore the importance of indoor design guideline for elderly houses has been stressed and the understanding of the aging in regard to this trend will create more mature spaces. In line with this trend the purpose of this study is to study the medical factors related with bathroom interior design guidelines of the existing elderly houses from the viewpoint of deteriorating physical functions due to aging process. In order to research the deterioration of physical functions due to aging literatures of medical and exercise physiology were used and concerning the existing bathroom design guidelines for the aged people, the guideline items of behavior facilitation, physiological maintenance and perceptual maintenance aspects out of Murtha & Lee's user benefit criteria(1976) related with physical functions were selected to research in relation with the knowledge about the deterioration phenomena of physical functions. Physical aging and deterioration aspects were classified from the viewpoint of musculoskeletal disorder, cardiovascular disorder, respiratory disorder, gastronomy disorder, urology disorder, somatosensory disorder, endocrine disorder, immune disorder, nervous disorder and skin diseases and these were utilized in interpreting total 100 items of bathroom design guideline. Because bathroom is the space where many physical movements are done, it had the closest relationship with the deterioration of musculoskeletal health in general and as bathroom is the space where people use water and feel the difference in temperature and moisture more than other spaces, deterioration of skin and somatosensory health had the next closest relationship. The result of this study revealed that regarding the deterioration of physical functions of the elderly people in aspect of their perceptibility as designers will design creatively and sincerely based on its relationship with nervous system in future, the result of this study will be used to develop better spatial designs efficiently to meet for the aging society.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Physical Medicine
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.91-98
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• 2013

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to investigate characteristics of the effects of a video strength exercise on grip strength, balance, timed up and go in the frail elderly women. METHODS: Subjects were thirty frail elderly people selected by the screening tool and they were divided into exercise group and control group. The video strength exercise was carried out for three time a week for 12 weeks. Data was analyzed with independent t-test between exercise and control group and paired t-test between before and after. RESULTS: There were not significant differences between exercise and control group. However, there were significant effects between before and after in exercise group. The grip strength and one-leg stand with eyes open were significant improved and timed up and go was significant decreases. CONCLUSION: These results indicate that the video strength exercise for the frail elderly was very effective on improving grip strength and one-leg stand and timed up and go.

• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
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• v.45 no.3
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• pp.57-69
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• 2007

The purpose of this study is to examine the impacts of the physical health on health behaviors of the rural elderly. In this study, physical health is measured self-rated health and farmer symptoms. The specific questions addressed in this study are: What are the general tendencies of health behavior, self-rated health and farmer symptoms? What are the direct impacts and indirect impacts of respondents' characteristics, self-rated health and farmer symptoms on health behaviors of the rural elderly? For this purpose, survey data was gathered from 881 rural elderly who live in a village. The statistical methods used for data analysis were descriptive statistics, correlations, and path analysis with spsswin 12.0 program. The major findings of this study are as follows: The level of health behaviors and self-rated health is low and the level of farmer symptoms is high. In general, it can be said that respondents of this study have the low level of physical health and health behaviors. A path analysis shows the relation of variables, which influence on health behaviors. Economic status, education status and farmer symptoms play direct and positive effects on health behaviors. Especially, the effect of farmer symptoms is more important than the others. Sex and age are indirectly significant on health behavior. The results obtained from the study confirm that objective physical health, like as farmer symptoms, plays important roles in health behavior of the rural elderly. It means that the Korean rural elderly need many facilities and services to promote their physical health.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.1-12
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• 2003

Day care center for the elderly is an alternative for community care for frail elderly who need social participation and physical cares and services outside the family. The purpose of this study was to identify the present situation of day care center for the elderly and to suggest desirable interior space plans for elderly day care center. Data were collected by two ways; a mail survey and case studies of existing day care centers. Five cases of day care centers were analyzed to find out Physical and space problems, available programs and services. Also, the staffs in 96 day care centers for the elderly in nationwide were selected for a mail survey and 68.8 percentage of all was collected and analyzed. From the result of case studies, narrow space and lack of accessibility features for wheelchair or other prosthetic devices were the major problems. From the result of a mail survey analysis, the elderly users were over 73 years old, and high proportion had suffered from dementia and apoplexy Also, staffing ration was 1:7 In other words, one staff was caring of 7 old people, and supporting staff was insufficient. Therefore, supportive, therapeutic environment Was more important issue to improve quality of care. Separate program room and outdoor space, lounging space, treatment room by gardening, separate counselling room, bedroom, a simple kitchen unit, staff office, separate physical treatment room, resting room for staff was indicated more necessarily. When priority of planning interior space was safety followed by accessability and convenience, it was also reported that sire of each room was generally narrow. The most serious problem in interior space was the lack and narrowness of space, and accessible features for mobility. Based on the literature review and the findings of this study, two types of floor plans for elderly day care center were suggested;‘a mixed type for the elderly with and without dementia’and‘a separate type for the elderly with dementia.’The main goals for designing interior space for two types of elderly day care center were to provide safe environment, encouraging environment for remaining abilities of users, sanitary environment, therapeutic environment, familiar environment, and socially-encouraging environment. The recommendations for further studies were suggested.

• Physical Therapy Rehabilitation Science
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.261-268
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• 2020

Objective: This study was conducted to provide basic data on physical function improvement activities of elderly care facilities by identifying the degree of physical improvement activities of elderly caregivers. Design: Descriptive correlational study. Methods: The instrument of this study consisted of 12 questions on the general characteristics of the subject. For the assessment of improvement in physical function activities, the measuring tool used for the elderly consisted of a total of 20 questions. For data analysis, Pearson's correlation coefficient & Spearman's rho and multiple regression were used. Results: The higher the age of the subjects, the lower their educational background (r=-0.273, p<0.05), and the higher the probability of having a religion (r=-0.258, p<0.05), the more stable the employment type (r=-0.333, p<0.05). The higher the level of education, the higher the monthly income (r=0.187, p<0.01), and the shorter the career (r=-0.204, p<0.05). The more stable employment, the more unstable duty (r=-0.245, p<0.05), and the more unstable work, the higher the monthly income (r=-0.206, p<0.05) and the longer the career, the higher the monthly income (r=0.247, p<0.05). The more stable the employment, the more activities to improve physical function were found (r=0.341, p<0.05), and the more unstable the duty, the more activities to improve physical function were found (r=0.321, p<0.05), and the higher monthly income, the less physical function improvement activities (r=-0.196, p<0.05). Conclusions: It is necessary to provide regular services by a dedicated physical therapist for physical function improvement activities in order to improve the quality of life of the elderly in the future.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.115-123
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• 2015

Objective: The aim of this study is to find and propose the behavioral characteristic of the elderly at their living space through diary study. Background: Recent development of technology and the emergence of various IT devices is contributing to active research in smart home, services which considers the behavior characteristics of the elderly are still unable to be provided. Method: This study performed self-diary study method with ten households aged over 65 that lived in smart home. Based on these data collected from the diary study, six behavior characteristics of elderly were drawn. Results: The elderly were aware of their cognitive and physical limitations and showed fear. They are difficult to adapt in the state of the art. Their activities to acquire information were limited and were against changes, preferring to maintain the old ways. Conclusion: The result of this study, findings of behavioral characteristics of the elderly reveal that most of them spend their time on personal maintenance, socializing and leisure activities. Therefore, smart home services related to these characteristics should be considered as a top priority. Application: The results of the behavior characteristics can be utilized for planning out future smart home services and thereby contributing to increase in convenience and satisfaction of the elderly.

• Journal of Venture Innovation
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.75-93
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• 2023

As non-face-to-face contact was activated due to the progress of the 4th Industrial Revolution and COVID-19, the government's civil service was also rapidly reflecting this phenomenon. However, there were cases in which it was quite burdensome and rather uncomfortable for the elderly who were relatively alienated from the digital culture. Therefore, in this study, we tried to empirically analyze the factors that affect the use of government 24(a government civil integration service) by the elderly. For this purpose, the characteristics of the elderly and the characteristics of services were paid attention. As the characteristic factors of the elderly, cognitive characteristics, psychological characteristics, and physical characteristics were derived, and as service characteristics, usefulness, ease of use, security, and government support were derived when using government 24. The effect of these factors on the intention to use Government 24 was empirically analyzed. For empirical analysis, a survey was conducted targeting the elderly in their 60s and older, and 250 valid sample were used for analysis. The analysis results were as follows. Among the characteristics of the elderly, cognitive characteristics, psychological characteristics, and physical characteristics were all found to had a significant negative (-) effect on the intention to use Government 24. On the other hand, usefulness, ease of use, and government support were found to had a significant positive (+) effect on the intention to use government 24. On the other hand, security was not tested for a significant relationship with government 24 use intention. Among the variables that have a significant impact, the psychological characteristics of the elderly had the greatest impact on the intention to use Government 24. Usefulness, cognitive characteristics, physical characteristics, ease of use, and government support were in order. The fact that this study conducted an empirical analysis by combining the characteristics of the elderly and the characteristics of services was meaningful at the academic level. In addition, considering that psychological characteristics appeared to be the most important factor, it seemed necessary to consider these points to promote the use of Government 24 by the elderly.