• Journal of the Korean Association of Geographic Information Studies
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.251-265
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• 2023

The purpose of this study is to deduce key indicators in evaluating the pedestrian environment for the elderly in Busan, which has entered an aging society, and to propose policy improvement measures. The key indicators were selected based on prior research and surveys, and the effectiveness of those indicators were measured through evaluations conducted on three places which have the highest proportion of the elderly population in Busan. The summaries of analysis are as follow. First, the three places are hillslide residential areas, and areas of activity that the elderly have were very narrow due to the restrictions on their movement caused by slope. Second, the areas were filled with a number of illegally parked vehicles. And the degree of segregation of pedestrian and vehicle and the level of safety were very low. Third, the streets with steep slopes of the target site force the elderly to move vertically, and for this reason, the elderly are expressing difficulties in outdoor activities. Fourth, it was found that the target site lacked a space for relaxation during outdoor activities. The poor walking environment not only limit the essential and social activities of the elderly, but also adversely affects the health and quality of life of the elderly. In order to maintain the health of the elderly and improve the quality of life, actions should be taken to improve the walking factors that affect the movement and external activities of the elderly.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.104-122
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• 2010

Long-term care insurance has been introduced in Korea a year ago, and we are in a stage requiring to set principles regarding the generosity of coverage and how to gradually extend the coverage. This study empirically analyzes how the long-term care insurance in Korea is operated. Special attention is given to who is the main beneficiary of the long-term care insurance introduction, and what is the factors influencing the elderly's decision to apply for or use long-term care services. Use of a detailed information of individuals' public health insurance and long-term care insurance from administration data made it possible to control for health status, socioeconomic status including family type, housing tenure, income level. Logit models were employed to analyze the effects of various socioeconomic factors on the likelihood of applying and using long-term care services. Also, this study employed a survey questioning whether to ever willing to take other option as a alternative to residential care or home-care and the level of cash benefit for which they are willing to replace the formal care with informal care. The result indicated that although the poorest elderly population groups are in the greatest need for the long-term care service, they are in difficulty using the service due to economic burden. This implies the copayment amount needs to be adjusted in order for the poor elderly group to be able to get the benefit of the long-term care service.

• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.104-121
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• 2016

This study was conducted in order to investigate the factors affecting the elderly employment and especially focused on the factor of their residential areas. This paper performs binary logistic regression analysis with the micro data of 2014 Survey of Living Conditions and Welfare Needs of Older Koreans. To reveal the influence on the elderly employment, various dependent variables was used such as demographical, health, household, economic, lifelong job, living environment, and residential area characteristics. The elderly in rural areas have higher possibility of currently working than those in urban areas. Based on the results, more various and complex factors affected on the employment of the urban elderly. This suggested that differentiated policy supports were needed in the urban and rural areas.

• Journal of the Korean housing association
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.45-52
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• 2007

The demographic profile of the households will shift towards the 'older elderly'. There are need upgrading existing housing and new housing in aspect of floor plan, accessories, facilities and so on. The government should prepare the policy and standards of housing design for the aged and disabled in order to improving the residents' housing conditions. The purpose of this study is to compare Korean to foreign guidelines related to residential design for the elderly and disabled and find out the characteristics of our standards. It was accomplished by literature research. The results were as follows. There is disagreements between domestic standards over the clear door opening, the clear hallways and handrails at entrance. And the foreign standards are based on their wheelchair size, ours are founded on it's size which specified only maximum overall dimensions. So ours are seem to be lack of accuracy. Our standard of stairs is in details in comparison with other space components. But ours don't go into details than foreign ones over length of hand-rails, riser etc. And for recommendations denoting minimum and maximum height of various component, it should be preceded the specific survey on limits of reaching ability for the elderly and disabled.

• Land and Housing Review
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.77-85
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• 2016

The government has switched the purpose of housing policy, from the 'housing supply' to 'housing welfare', with the Housing Laws established in 2015 under evaluation that resident stability and resident standard were improved. But, as 'affordable' housing is gradually decreasing, residential environment has become more poor. Residential environment is a basic element for the child safety, health, and better education. This study explored that the poor resident environment had effect on the child, figured out the situation on housing poverty of domestic child and searched the situation of the residential policy of domestic and foreign child. The main results are as follows. First, the poor resident environment of childhood has a bad effect on the physical health, mental health, academic achievement and cognitive development. Second, 1.29 million children (11.9%) are living in condition of housing poverty below minimum resident standard and are concentrated in certain areas. Third, the policy on housing poverty of domestic child is almost absent and focuses on the elderly, young people. this study discussed political and practical solutions based on these research results. On the basis of these research results, as policy suggestions we proposed housing policy making based on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, evidence-based housing policy enforcement and, residential policy suggestions under the responsibility of central government, and as practical suggestions community working as the subject and related agency's solidarity from prevention activity of housing poverty and child advocacy point and we discussed way for issue and analyzed related laws, policies, commitments.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.75-84
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• 2023

Background: The purpose of this study was to identify the factors affecting social discrimination experience on depression in the early and late elderly by region. Methods: This study used data from the National Survey of Older Koreans 2020. The subject of the study was the elderly aged 65 or older, and it was analyzed as those who responded. In order to analyze the effect of social discrimination experiences on depression, it was analyzed through binary logistic regression analysis. Results: The results of this study showed that the elderly who experienced social discrimination had a significant effect on depression. In addition, when four groups experienced social discrimination when using restaurants or coffee shops, depression was commonly affected. In addition, when both city and rural areas experience social discrimination when using sales facilities in social discrimination in the elderly, city areas are 2.21 times more likely to experience depression and 3.52 times more likely to experience depression in rural areas. The late elderly are more likely to experience 3.04 times more likely to experience social discrimination when using restaurants or coffee shops in city areas, and 3.03 times more likely to experience depression when experiencing social discrimination to make major decisions in the family in rural areas. Conclusion: In conclusion, it is necessary to prepare alternatives to prevent depression and improve mental health suitable for the characteristics of age and residential area. In addition, it suggests that personal and social efforts are needed to solve the problem of social discrimination in order to reduce depression in the elderly.

• The Journal of Korean Society for School & Community Health Education
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.83-96
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• 2021

Background & objectives: Cognitive function decline is a main factor influencing the overall life of the elderly and places a burden of society. The aime of this study was to investigate the risk factors of cognitive function decline of elderly living alone and living with a spouse. Methods: This study used the Korean Longitudinal Study of Ageing from 2014 to 2018. 243 older adults who lived alone and 1,155 lived with a spouse with the Korean version of Mini Mental State Examination scores in normal range at the time of 2014 were included in the analysis. Logistic regression analysis was conducted to determine the difference of risk factors affecting cognitive function decline between in elderly living alone and elderly living with a spouse. Results: Cognitive function decline incidence rate of elderly living alone was 30.5% and the elderly living with a spouse showed 23.0%. According to the results of logistic regression analysis, the risk factors of cognitive function decline in the elderly living alone was age and residential area, while in the elderly living with a spouse were age, education level, social networks, and depression. Conclusions: The factors that affect the cognitive function decline of the elderly living alone and the elderly living with a spouse were different. Accordingly, other measures to prevent cognitive decline are necessary.

• Land and Housing Review
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.19-34
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• 2023

The proportion of single-person households has been steadily increasing, and the young account for the highest proportion at 35.9% among all single-person households. However, research on young single-person households has been relatively recent. Research on single-person households has mostly focused on all single-person households or elderly single-person households, and comparative research between different age groups is lacking. Therefore, this study categorizes all single-person households into young, middle-aged, and elderly groups to investigate the differences in the factors that affect their residential satisfaction and to analyze how these residential environment factors affect life satisfaction through the mediating effect of residential satisfaction. The 2020 Seoul Survey Urban Policy Index Survey data were analyzed using a structural equation model to investigate the impact of each factor. First, a finding is that various residential environment factors directly affect residential satisfaction and life satisfaction. Next, it was found that residential satisfaction directly affects life satisfaction in the models of young and middle-aged single-person households. Through this, it was confirmed that there are differences in residential environment factors that affect residential satisfaction and that residential satisfaction plays an important mediating role. Finally, it was found that the factors that affect the residential and life satisfaction of young single-person households are more diverse compared to other age groups. This study provides policy implications that age group differences should be considered first in order to improve the residential and life satisfaction of single-person households. In particular, for young single-person households, it is necessary to consider more diverse alternatives to improve their residential and life satisfaction.

• 한국노년학
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.373-396
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• 2021

This study aims to examine the effect of housing characteristics of older adults on the willingness to continue living in local communities in order to realize the Aging in place of the elderly in Korea. Considering that the health status of the elderly is important for aging in place, both healthy and unhealthy cases were analyzed in the analyses. Housing characteristics include home ownership, housing cost burden, housing convenience, housing satisfaction, and residential environment satisfaction. The study sample is 9,798 elderly people from the 2017 survey on the elderly. Key findings are as follows: First, while 6,704 older adults (68.4%) chose to continue living in the community, 3,094 (31.6%) of the elderly did not choose to live in the local community. Second, the elderly who chose to stay in the local community are likely to have more real estate assets and less burden of housing expenses than the elderly group who did not. Third, the results report that older adults with more real estate assets and lower the housing cost burden are likely to choose sustainable living in the local community. The findings suggest that the majority of the elderly actually preferred Aging in place. This study concludes with practice and policy implications for realizing aging in place considering the elderly's needs.

• 한국노년학
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.445-458
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• 2007

This study aims to find the extent to which the elderly intends to live in their community and significant factors related to their intention and to provide basic but important empirical data in approaching to various community resources for community care service for the elderly. This study analyzed the raw data titled social welfare needs of residents of Busan Metropolitan City surveyed in 2005. Within the data, 1,673 households were selected in which at least one senior citizen aged 65 and over lived together. Questionnaires from in each household were analyzed. Research findings indicate that 80% of the respondents intend to live in their home rather than in residential institutions and that the elderly without adult children(55.2%) have less intention for living in their home than the elderly without their spouse(76.4%). Their intention-related factors were the presence of adult children, recognition on community resources for the elderly and perceived number of chronic diseases, when they were presumed to be healthy. When they were presumably weak or ill, socio-economic factors such as home ownership and welfare recipience were found to be more influential factors than family-related variables. The elderly who intended to live in home rather than to live in a residential institution were less likely to use social services in community than expected. Policy and practice implications were suggested on the basis of the findings.