• Title/Summary/Keyword: Vulnerable Elderly People

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Association between job types of economically active population and sleep appropriateness among South Koreans (국내 경제활동 인구의 직업유형별 적정수면과의 연관성)

  • Kim, Sun Jung;Kim, Dong Jun;Gim, Eun Na;Yu, Tae Gyu
    • Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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    • v.25 no.3
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    • pp.67-77
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    • 2020
  • Background: As of 2016, average Koreans sleep 7 hours and 42 minutes, the lowest figure among Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development(OECD) countries, and the number of people with sleep disorders reached 561,000. Accordingly, the government has promoted the provision of 'Multiple Sleep Test' to strengthen the diagnosis service for patients with 'sleep disorder' in july 2018. As a result, healthcare costs for patients with sleep disorder is on the rise every year. In this study, we utilized 'Appropriate Sleep' criteria of United States's National Sleep Foundation(NSF) then investigated Korean's sleep pertinence using 「7th National Health and Nutrition Survey for 2016-2018」 by different occupational type, demographic characteristics, socio-economic characteristics, and health behaviors. Methods: We performed descriptive analysis to examine differences of sleep appropriateness by various sample characteristics. Multivariate logistic regression models were used to examine sleep appropriateness by occupational type and other variables. We also analyzed subgroup models to investigate. Results: As a result, a total of 1,948 (18.37%) study subjects experienced in-appropriate sleep. Results of the Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that blue color group had a higher odds ratio (OR) for experiencing in-appropriate sleep (OR=1.179). In addition, the odds ratio of experienced in-appropriate sleep among the elderly aged 70 and over was 2.698, and the odds ratio of the overstressed group was 1.299. Furthermore, sub-group analysis showed that blue color job of female(Or=1.334), high school or below(OR=1.404), divorce/death/separation(OR=2.039), 25%ile-50%lie income group(OR=1.411) more likely experienced in-appropriate sleep. Conclusion: Growing sleep disorder patients and related health care costs are expected. Government should apply detailed 'total periodic sleep disorder management policy' including pre-consultation, examination, diagnosis, treatment, post-consultation, self-management especially to vulnerable population that this study found.

An Analysis on Income-related Health Inequality of the Aged Applied to EQ-5D (소득계층에 따른 노인들의 건강 불평등 측정: EQ-5D 척도를 중심으로)

  • Kim, Jun Gu
    • 한국노년학
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    • v.32 no.3
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    • pp.759-776
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    • 2012
  • This study analysed the income-related health inequality of the aged in Korea applied to EQ-5D. Two decompositions were used in analysis. One was the decomposition of income-related health inequality into six different dimensions of EQ-5D, and the other was to decompose it by sub-group such as sex, region, existence of spouse. The results are summarized as follows. First, the health concentration index(CI) of the aged was .0254, which meant that there were pro-rich inequality in elderly people's health levels. The same patterns were also seen in the analysis of different dimensions of EQ-5D such as mobility, self-care, usual activities, pain/discomfort, and anxiety/depression. Second, mobility accounted for 35.8% of total EQ-5D score, most contributing to CI of the dimensions of EQ-5D. The CIs by the dimensions ranged from .0091 for mobility to .0013 for self-care. Third, The decompositions by sub-groups showed that the contributions of sex, region, and existence of spouse to health inequality was similar to each other, all of three sub-groups accounted for 10 % of inequality respectively. Fourth, the inequality within group was higher in female group, rural area, and the aged without spouse. The average health level of these groups was lower than that of the other ones, too. These facts indicated that old women, the aged without spouse, and the elderly in rural area were the most vulnerable groups in health problems. Therefore, it is necessary to pay more attention to health problems of these groups in the policy making of health security and social welfare services.

An Exploratory Research on Social Workers' Attitude and Related Factors about Indoor Air Quality Management of Social Welfare Facilities (사회복지시설 종사자의 실내공기질 관리에 대한 태도와 관련 요인에 관한 탐색적 연구)

  • Bae, Jin-Hee
    • The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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    • v.17 no.5
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    • pp.273-284
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    • 2017
  • As these days people spend most of time at inner space, indoor air quality affect human life seriously. Government manage indoor air quality of various facilities based on different laws. Government released that they would try to protect environment for vulnerable people such children and seniors from indoor air pollutants in 2015. But social welfare facilities are exception under current legal systems. Clients of social welfare residential facilities are the disables, the elderly, homeless and children and they usually stay inner space very long time. The purpose of this study is explore workers' attitude and related factors about indoor air quality management of social welfare facilities. 69.5% of respondents agree to government's indoor air quality management, 80.9% of respondents think social welfare facilities must be included in legal system for indoor air quality management. Environmental awareness and law awareness were related with attitude to indoor air quality management. Based on the results of the analysis, I propose the amendment of law on indoor air quality of the Ministry of Environment, cost burden of central or local government and the necessity of education and research on indoor air quality management in social welfare facilities.

The effects of a personalized nutrition intervention program on food security, health and nutritional status of low-income older adults in Seoul city (서울시 일부 취약계층 노인에서 맞춤형 영양중재 프로그램에 따른 식품안정성 확보 및 건강·영양상태 개선 효과)

  • Lee, Yeyeon;Yang, Narae;Shin, Minjeong;Lee, Kyung-Eun;Yoo, Chang Hee;Kim, Kirang
    • Journal of Nutrition and Health
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    • v.53 no.4
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    • pp.416-430
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    • 2020
  • Purpose: This study was conducted to assess the effects of a personalized nutritional intervention program on food security and health and nutritional status of elderly people in the city of Seoul. Methods: A total of 372 elderly adults aged 65 years or above who resided in Seoul were enrolled in this study. Personalized supplementary food supply and nutritional education based on chronic disease status, disability and cooking ability were implemented for 4 months. To evaluate the effectiveness of the program, nutrient intake, food security status, anemia status, chronic disease management, and frailty status, and prevalence of malnutrition (Mini Nutritional Assessment) were examined. Results: After the program, all subjects displayed significantly increased nutrient intake. Before the intervention, all subjects were in a state of food insecurity; however, after the intervention, 37.1% of the subjects were food secure. Moreover, the rates of being at risk of malnutrition and malnutrition in subjects were decreased and instead rate of those who improved to normal increased to 29.8% from 0% of normal rate before the prevention. The rate of subjects without anemia increased from 18.7% to 28.5% after the intervention. In addition, the rate of subjects with intensive or periodic management of chronic diseases decreased, while those with occasional management of chronic diseases increased from 0% to 4.6%. Furthermore, the rates of being at risk of frailty and frailty were decreased and the normal rate increased from 0% to 9.7% instead. Age group-based analysis showed that elderly people over 80 years showed less improvement in the management of the chronic disease status and the frailty status. Conclusion: Personalized supplementary food supplies and nutritional education improved not only the nutritional status but also disease status in vulnerable older adults, and the effects were more significant in adults aged less than 80 years.

Experimental Study on the Determination of Slope and Height of Curbs Considering the VRUs (교통약자를 고려한 보도의 경사도와 높이 결정을 위한 실험연구)

  • Kim, Hyunjin;Lim, Joonbeom;Choe, Byongho;Oh, Cheol;Kang, Inhyeng
    • International Journal of Highway Engineering
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    • v.20 no.1
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    • pp.107-115
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    • 2018
  • PURPOSES : As the population of the mobility handicapped, who are classified as the disabled, the elderly, pregnant women, children, etc., has increased, the voices for guaranteeing their rights have been increasing as well. Thus, the design manuals for roads and sidewalks for the mobility handicapped were developed by the local government, such as the Ministry of Land, Transport, and Tourism, in Seoul City. However, according to the 2013 survey results of the Seoul Metropolitan City, the mobility handicapped still feel uncomfortable with the sidewalks, and particularly request for the improvement of the step and slope of the sidewalk curb. Therefore, in this study, we conducted an empirical experimental study to determine the slope of the sidewalk curb and height of the steps considering the mobility handicapped and analyzed whether there is a statistically significant difference. METHODS : The methodology of this study is an empirical experimental one. In the study, five non-disabled people, 10 wheelchair users, and 10 eye patch and stick users walked about 2-3 min on the sidewalk plates of the sloped type (0%, 5%, 6.3%, 8.3%) and stepped type (0 cm, 1 cm, 3 cm, 6 cm), and their human physiological responses, such as the skin temperature, volume of perspiration on forehead and chest, and heart rate, were measured and recorded. After combining the data, we conducted a nonparametric test, ANOVA, or t-test to determine whether there was a statistically significant difference according to each slope and step type. RESULTS : It was found that for the non-disabled, there was no significant difference in human physiological responses according to the slope and steps of the sidewalk. It can be said that the non-disabled do not feel much physiological discomfort while walking. In the case of the sloped sidewalk plate, the heart rate of the wheel chair users increased when the slope was 6.3%. In the case of the eye patch and stick users, the volume of perspiration on the chest increased at a slope of 5.0%. In general, it is judged that a sidewalk with a slope that is less than 5% does not cause a change in the physiological response. In the case of a stepped sidewalk plate, when 0 cm, 1 cm, and 3 cm were compared for wheelchair users, the amount of forehead perspiration increased from 1 cm. Meanwhile, in the case of the eye patch and stick users, when 0 cm and 6 cm were compared, the amount of perspiration on the forehead and chest as well as the heart rate all increased at 6 cm. Taken together, in the case of wheelchair users, a difference was shown when the height of the step of the sidewalk plate was 1 cm, suggesting that installing it at 0 cm does not cause any physiological discomfort. Moreover, in the case of the eye patch and stick users, when comparing only 0 cm and 6 cm, 0 cm was considered to be suitable, as there was a difference in physiological response at 6 cm. CONCLUSIONS : In this study, we set the human physiological responses such as chest skin temperature, amount of perspiration, and heart rate as evaluation items, and our study was considered to be a meaningful experiment that targeted wheelchair users as well as eye patch and stick users. The validity of the evaluation items was confirmed, as the results of human physiological responses were significant. As for the sidewalk design, according to the experiment result, it is considered that differential application should be implemented according to the type of mobility handicap, rather than uniformly applying a sidewalk step of 2 cm and sidewalk slope of 1/25, which are the current legal standards.