• The Korean Journal of Community Living Science
• /
• v.25 no.3
• /
• pp.401-415
• /
• 2014

To prepare for the changes in the future, this study considered people in their seventies and eighties in rural areas in the last decade. Based on a survey of rural life by the Rural Development Administration, all factors were analyzed using SAS ver. 9.3. The rate of rice farming decreased, and vegetable-cultivation increased from 8.4% in 2001 to and 26.6% in 2008 for people in their seventies and eighties. The number of family members decreased to 1.96 in 2010 from 2.04 in 2001, and annual income increased by KRW 20-29 million for those in their seventies and eighties, whereas it was more than KRW 30 million for those in their forties. Bathing with warm water increased to 88.9% from 69.8%, and household waste treated by self-incineration decreased from 86.4% to 40.0% in the last decade. Separate collection spread since 2008. Food waste disposal and the burial (46.0%) showed had for people in their seventies and eighties, and animal feed increased (50.7%) for those in their forties at 2001. The separate collection increased by 39.6% in 2010 for those in their seventies and eighties and by 53.5% for those in their forties(p<0.05). The manufacture of jang and kimchi showed were little annual changes for people in their seventies and eighties. Food storage processing was higher for those in their forties. For those in their seventies and eighties, food group intake over the 2004-2010 period increased from 3.3 times a week to 4.2 times a week for protein foods and from 4.9 times a week to 5.5 times a week for vegetables. There was no change in fruits, milk, and seaweeds for those in their seventies and eighties, but there was an increase for those in their forties. The results suggest the continued increase in the manufacture of jang and kimchi and protein and vegetable intake for those in their seventies and eighties. Some direction to welfare, mechanized rice planting and living with neighbors together would be continued with good nutrition for elderly residents.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
• /
• v.26 no.1
• /
• pp.24-32
• /
• 2016

Objective: The visually impaired have limited access to health care services and related information, and thus, they can have serious hurdles against properly taking medications. Despite that it is important to improve self-care ability of the visually impaired for correct medication use, there have been few studies investigating their needs for health care services in Korea, particularly focusing on proper medication usage. This study is to explore safety-related issues regarding mediation usage among the visually impaired based on in-depth interview. We particularly focus on any obstacles for safe use of medicines including experience on medication-related adverse effects in order to provide preliminary evidence for policy measures to improve proper medication use among the visually impaired. Methods: Study sample was visually impaired individuals who resided in Seoul area and were registered in the National Association of Visually Impaired. The association helped the process of recruiting the study participants. In-depth interview for each study participants was conducted. Each interview was recorded and later converted into a written script to extract core contents for the analysis. Results: The study participants comprised of three women (42.9%) and four men (57.1%). One was in his 20's, and there were four participants in 30's and two in 40's. Fully impaired participants were majority (5 out of 7). Limitation to physical access to health care providers and health information were the key factors to hamper safe medication utilization among the study participants. Difficulty reading medication information and may take the wrong medication or incorrect doses of medication, resulting in serious consequences, including overdose or inadequate treatment of health problems. Visually impaired patients report increased anxiety related to medication management and must rely on others to obtain necessary drug information. Pharmacists have a unique opportunity to pursue accurate medication adherence in this special population. This article reviews literature illustrating how severe medication mismanagement can occur in the visually impaired elderly and presents resources and solutions for pharmacists to take a larger role in adherence management in this population. Conclusion: The visually impaired had difficulties reading medication information and identifying medicines, and took incorrect doses of medications. Public support for safe medication use and medication management among the visually impaired is necessary.

• Journal of the Korean Dietetic Association
• /
• v.16 no.2
• /
• pp.122-132
• /
• 2010

Elderly people comprise an increasing proportion of the population, and nutritional impairments may contribute to health problems among this group. This study was conducted to evaluate the nutritional status by Mini-Nutritional Assessment (MNA) and to identify relationships among anthropometric measurements, biochemical indicators, bone Mineral Density (BMD) and MNA results among older adults (${\geq}$65 yrs, n=98, 66.7${\pm}$2.5 yrs; M=52, F=46, BMI 24.5${\pm}$2.8 $kg/m^2$) at a Health Care Center. A dietitian administered MNA and collected anthropometric measurements (weight, height, waist circumference), biochemical indicators (albumin, hemoglobin, hematocrit, TLC, glucose, lipids) and the BMD (spine, femur, F=46). Subjects were grouped into a normal nutrition group (0~2 risk factors of malnutrition) and a high risk of malnutrition group (>=3 risk factors of malnutrition) based on their risk factor status for malnutrition. The risk factors for malnutrition include age ${\geq}$65 years, PIBW <90%, albumin <3.5 g/dl, TLC <1,500%, Hgb <14 g/dl (men), Hgb <10 g/dl (women), loss of appetite and weight loss 1~3 kg/last 3 months. In addition, subjects were grouped into a normal, osteopenia and osteoporosis group by BMD. We found that 12% of the subjects were at risk of malnutrition (MNA score, 21.4${\pm}$2.1) and that 88% were well nourished (27.3${\pm}$1.5) according to the MNA. Full-MNA scores were positively and significantly (p<0.05) associated with BMI, mid-arm circumference (MAC), calf circumference (CC), albumin and hemoglobin, respectively. The full-MNA score of the high risk of malnutrition group (23.0${\pm}$3.8) was lower than that of the normal nutrition group (27.0${\pm}$2.1) (p<0.05). In addition, the Full-MNA score was negatively associated with the risk factor of malnutrition (r=－0.35, p=0.0004). We found that 39.1% of the subjects had osteoporosis, 45.7% had osteopenia and 15.2% were normal according to their BMD. The MNA score of osteoporosis group (24.58${\pm}$3.3) was lower than that of the normal (27.4${\pm}$1.1) and osteopenia group (26.9${\pm}$1.5) (p<0.05). These results suggested that MNA can be useful as a nutritional screening tool of older adults in Health Care Centers.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Marine Environment & Energy
• /
• v.8 no.2
• /
• pp.78-82
• /
• 2005

Fishermen have higher risk of occupational injuries and disease due to frequent machine usage and direct contact to live biological materials. Moreover, growing elderly workers makes the susceptibility to occupational injuries and disease higher. This study was performed to investigate the occupational safety and health status among fishermen. The interview was carried out at Jumunjin and Geojin ports which were representative port at North East side of Korea. The structured questionnaire were used to interview the fishermen from AM 6:00 to PM 11:00 and total respondent were 97 workers. The results were followed; 7 fishermen of all respondents experienced occupational injuries during their work, 5 fishermen were needed to admission longer than 4 days. The injury types were contusion(4 persons), fracture(1 persons) and amputation(2 persons). The cause of injury might be the lack of caution and the unstability of working condition. These results suggested the ergonomical evaluation of working condition and proper management. But there was limited concern and studies on the policy on occupational safety and health on fishermen. So, further study was required to establish the sound policy of fishermen's occupational safety and health.

• The Journal of Korean Academy of Prosthodontics
• /
• v.58 no.3
• /
• pp.221-227
• /
• 2020

In the case of complete edentulous patients, as the mandibular alveolar bone absorption progresses, the maintenance and stability of the existing dentures, which had satisfactory functions in the past, are deteriorated. Despite of the need to fabricate new dentures, they often hesitate due to physical burdens on the duration and intensity of future treatment progress due to the effects of aging and systemic diseases. In the case of these completely edentulous patients, it is necessary to consider the treatment goals that can reduce the number of visits and the adaptation period for new dentures before starting the treatment. This case is a case of producing complete dentures of elderly patients with deteriorated physical ability. In addition to producing suction dentures through preliminary and definitive closed mouth functional impression suggested by Sato, CAD / CAM technique was used to transfer occlusal functional information of existing dentures to facilitate adaptation to new dentures.

• Journal of Korean Ophthalmic Optics Society
• /
• v.14 no.3
• /
• pp.65-73
• /
• 2009

Purpose: This study was conducted to investigate the changes in distance refractive power and reading addition that occur after wearing corrective glasses for prebyopia. Methods: The subjects aged 42 to 75 years who had no ophthalmologic diseases and did not undergo cataract or retina surgery, had a corrected visual acuity of 20/20 and did not have a previous history of wearing corrective glasses for presbyopia. These subjects were divided into 3 groups: the control, reading spectacles and multifocals wearing group and they were measured for distance refractive power and reading addition at their visit. The maximum follow-up period was 73 months. Results: As for distance refractive power, the power tends to shift to hyperopia depending on age (r=0.486, p<.001) and 50.0% of the subjects increased plus power during this study period. Plus power Increments per year in distance refractive power in the reading spectacle wearing group were significantly different with control and multifocals wearing group (p<.05). On the other hand, the multifocals wearing group's increments were not different with control. Increments in reading addition were also increased in the reading spectacles group than in the control and multifocals wearing groups (p<.05). Conclusions: The age related hyperopic shift could be occurred in the elderly people, routine refraction is mandatory. And reading spectacles could induce an age related hyperopic shift and the additional need for reading addition that the prescription of multifocals may reduce changes in distance refractive power and reading addition.

• Korean Journal of Family Social Work
• /
• no.53
• /
• pp.235-263
• /
• 2016

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships among caregiving stress, depression, and partner violence by gender. Data were gathered though questionnaires surveying 223 cases living in the Seoul and Kyeonggi, Pusan areas. In analyzing precess, the researchers used t-test, ANOVA, correlation and regression. Additionally, bootstrapping was used to verify the significant mediating effect of depression. The findings are follows: First, approximately 37.3 percent of adult children caregivers reported having experienced partner violence in the past year. And the depression mean score among adult children caregivers was 1.00, higher compared to 0.73 of general population. Female caregiving burden and depression level was higher than those of male. Second, the results from regression analysis revealed that caregiving stress influenced to partner violence positively. Depression has the full mediating effect between caregiving stress and partner violence. The results suggest a necessity of intervention to reduce caregiving stress, depression and prevent partner violence in the dementia caregiver's family. The implications for social work practice were also discussed.

• Journal of the Korean Applied Science and Technology
• /
• v.35 no.4
• /
• pp.1285-1294
• /
• 2018

The purpose of this paper was to identify the relationship between the characteristics of community mental health, and to identify if mediatable contextual property acts as factor influencing community mental health. Data of 229 municipal population groups were collected from KNSO and The 6th Community Health Plan. The data were analyzed using ANOVA, Spearman correlation, and multiple regression analysis. The perceived stress showed significant difference depending on health budget, mental health budget, number of mental health personnel, and was negatively correlated with proportion of the elderly, employment rate, percentage of NBLS recipients, health budget, and number of mental health personnel. The depressive mood differed depending on the number mental health personnel, and was negatively correlated with percentage of NBLS recipients and number of mental health personnel. Mental health budget and number of mental health personnel were respectively influencing factor of perceived stress and depressive mood. Following the above result, in order to reduce the gap between the mental health of communities, the researcher suggests that mental health budget as well as overall health budget and the number of mental health personnel be enforced.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Clinical Toxicology
• /
• v.21 no.2
• /
• pp.69-80
• /
• 2023

Purpose: Suicide ranks among the top causes of death among youth in South Korea. This study aimed to identify the characteristics of suicidal individuals treated at emergency departments between 2011 and 2020. Methods: A retrospective analysis was conducted using data from January 2011 to December 2020 in the Injury Surveillance Cohort, a prospective registry. Patients' sex, age, mortality, methods of self-harm, and previous suicide attempts were analyzed. The methods of self-harm were categorized into falls, asphyxiation, blunt injuries, penetrating injuries, poisoning, and others. Sub-groups with and without poisoning were compared. Results: The proportion of self-harm/suicide attempts increased from 2.3% (2011) to 5.0% (2020). The mortality rate decreased from 10.8% (2011) to 6.3% (2020). Poisoning was the most common method (61.7%). Mortality rates ranged from 42.0% for asphyxiation to 0.2% for blunt injuries. Individuals in their 20s showed a marked increase in suicide/self-harm attempts, especially in the last three years. A large proportion of decedents in their 70s or older (52.6%) used poisoning as a method of suicide. The percentage of individuals with two or more previous attempts rose from 7.1% (2011) to 19.7% (2020). The death rates by poisoning decreased from 7.7% (2011) to 2.5% (2020). Conclusion: Our findings underscore the urgent need for targeted interventions and suicide prevention policies. Managing and reducing suicide and self-harm in emergency settings will require a focus on poisoning, the 10-29 age group, and the elderly. This paper will be valuable for future policies aiming to reduce the societal burden of suicide and self-harm.

• Nutrition Research and Practice
• /
• v.12 no.5
• /
• pp.378-386
• /
• 2018

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Benign prostatic hypertrophy (BPH) is a major cause of abnormal overgrowth of the prostate mainly in the elderly. Corni Fructus has been reported to be effective in the prevention and treatment of various diseases because of its strong antioxidant effect, but its efficacy against BPH is not yet known. This study was designed to evaluate the therapeutic efficacy of Corni Fructus water extract (CF) in testosterone-induced BPH rats. MATERIALS/METHODS: To induce BPH, rats were intraperitoneal injected with testosterone propionate (TP). Rats in the treatment group were orally administered with CF with TP injection, and finasteride, which is a selective inhibitor of $5{\alpha}$-reductase type 2, was used as a positive control. RESULTS: Our results showed that the increased prostate weight and histopathological changes in BPH model rats were suppressed by CF treatment. CF, similar to the finasteride-treated group, decreased the levels of testosterone and dihydrotestosterone by TP treatment in the serum, and it also reduced $5{\alpha}$-reductase expression and concentration in prostate tissue and serum, respectively. In addition, CF significantly blocked the expression of the androgen receptor (AR), AR co-activators, and proliferating cell nuclear antigen in BPH rats, and this blocking was associated with a decrease in prostate-specific antigen levels in serum and prostate tissue. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that CF may weaken the BPH status through the inactivation of at least $5{\alpha}$-reductase and AR activity and may be useful for the clinical treatment of BPH.