• 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.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.128-135
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• 2014

Background: With ageing and growing importance of disease management system, it is necessary to investigate the extent of regional difference in service utilization for chronic diseases among the elderly and to reflect it in designing the system. Methods: A multiple regression analysis and descriptive statistics analyses were employed using patient survey, which covers nationwide health facilities and their users. Results: While the differences in the rate of service utilization/utilization outside living area between urban and rural areas or between income levels are not large, considerable variations are observed within urban or rural areas and within income groups. Conclusion: This results suggest that it is important to subsidize economically disadvantaged segments of the population and residents of less-favored areas to be better-equipped for chronic disease management in order to prevent the development of severe ailments and the need for treatment at higher-level medical institutions. Improvements to the service infrastructure in vulnerable regions are essential.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.162-175
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• 2013

Background: The purpose of this study was to analyze the association between social support, psychosocial factors, and health behaviors of old adults in korean society. Methods: The data which was used in this study was extracted from the second wave of the Korean longitudinal study of aging in 2008. A total of 3,978 elderly aged 65 years or older were included in this study. We conducted $X^2$-test, t-test for the elderly health behavior in accordance with their social support and psychosocial factors. Also, multivariate logistic regressive analysis was performed in order to find how degree social support and psychosocial factors are associated with health behavior after adjusting sex, age, smoking (alcohol drinking), and other significant variables. The data was processed by SAS ver. 9.1 and Stata SE ver. 11. Results: Social support in older adults was significantly associated with lower smoking, alcohol drinking, exercise, and eating habit. Also, psychosocial factors were positively associated with smoking, alcohol drinking, regular exercise, and eating habit. Conclusion: health behaviors of old adults are likely to be vulnerable to social support and psychosocial factors. To increase effectiveness of the health policy for the elderly in Korea, it is important to adapt new strategy to include the empowerment of elderly's social networks, policy support to enhance subjective expectation, and life satisfaction.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Rural Health Nursing
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.34-41
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• 2022

Purpose: This study attempted to investigate the influence of attitude toward the use of new technology and technological readiness on the intention of new technology acceptance among the elderly aged 65 or older living in small and medium-sized cities. Methods: Ninety-eight people age 65 or above participated in the study. The collected data were analyzed using an independent t-test and ANOVA with the Scheffé test. The Pearson correlations between attitude, technology readiness, and intention of new technology acceptance were analyzed, and factors affecting intention of new technology acceptance were analyzed using multiple regression analysis. Results: The factors affecting the elderly's intention to accept new technologies were innovation in technology readiness (β=.52, p<.001) and educational level (β=-.22, p=.018). Conclusion: Based on these findings, it is necessary to develop strategies and educational programs for the socioeconomically vulnerable elderly to improve their intention to accept new technologies.

• Journal of KIBIM
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.104-115
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• 2022

Fine Dust in Korea has been classified as a social disaster since 2019 due to continuous increase in concentration of Particulate Matter 10(PM 10) and PM 2.5. The fine dust issue has negative physical and mental impacts, especially on vulnerable population including children and the elderly. Seoul metropolitan government have installed fine dust shelters since 2019. However, there is a lack of research that evaluates spatiotemporal distribution of these facilities. Therefore, the first aim of this study is to find the relationship between PM levels and dust scattering construction sites, or air pollutant emission sites through in depth spatial analyses. The second purpose is to analyze the spatial distribution of PM shelters in Seoul, and to evaluate the location efficiency of them. Kernel density, krigging, and network analyses were conducted, and floating population was considered instead of census data for this research. The reults of network analysis based on the road system showed that Yangcheon-gu, Songpa-gu, Seongbuk-gu, and Dobong-gu were found to need additional fine dust shelters. Also, the results from analyzing the floating population that includes children and the elderly showed that Songpa-gu, Seodaemun-gu, Gangdong-gu, Seocho-gu, and Dongdaemun-gu need more placements of find dust shelters. The results of this study are expected to provide implications for urban planners to enhance find dust shelter placement in urban areas, and vulnerable population issues would be considered in many ways.

• Design Convergence Study
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.223-236
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• 2016

The infrastructure of public transportation of Seoul which has been developed in parallel with the progress of modernization receives successful performance evaluation at home and abroad, currently representing the highest transport distribution ratio. In spite of this fact, the public transportation of Seoul, which has entered into advanced phase of services, still leaves much to be desired, in particular, the mobility considering the transportation vulnerable is not well assured. It is time to provide proper supports for the efficient mobility of public transportation in accordance with the social changes present in the aging and multicultural society. This study inquired about the current status of public transportation and that of its users. In addition, the main inquiry target was oriented to the elderly and foreigners for observation and investigation, as well as for the analysis of their behavior. Furthermore, through in-depth interviews, inconvenient factors have been found according to public transportation means and its usage phase, by carrying out detailed evaluations of public transportation services. Based on this, the enhancement elements were defined and the corresponding concept was designed through a series of idea workshops, and this study intended to contribute to improving future public transportation services by proposing the improvement scheme applicable to the upcoming public transportation.

• Journal of Korean Society of Transportation
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.276-283
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• 2015

Pedestrians have been exposed to dangerous traffic environments, in which walking spaces in a city decrease without improved facilities even though cars increase. Such poor walking environments are deadly dangerous to the vulnerable as well as the non-vulnerable. This study analyzed the road facilities use characteristics according to a type of vulnerability in order to improve traffic safety and walking environment for vulnerable pedestrians. This study surveyed the vulnerable in terms of issues that they encountered on existing walkways and conducted the analytic hierarchy process (AHP), which took all quantitative and qualitative variables into account. The results of Level-3 analysis were showed that the elderly and the disabled were partially similar; both felt most inconvenient at enter-exit sections, steep walkway and bad paved walkway. Unlike those results, people with children and/or infants answered that overpass or underpass walkways without lifting facilities were most inconvenient walking environments.

• Convergence Security Journal
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• v.18 no.5_2
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• pp.83-92
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• 2018

Korea is increasingly vulnerable to disasters due to changes in economic and social structure. In particular, there are a number of disadvantaged people, such as elderly people, disabled people, basic livelihood recipients, foreigners, multicultural families, etc. who are vulnerable to social problems due to aging, polarization and internationalization. These vulnerable people to disaster have difficulties in acquiring disaster information and to respond promptly by self-help. Of course, recent studies on vulnerable people to disaster have been steadily increasing, but discussions about foreigners have been relatively inadequate. This has led to a lack of understanding about the actual situation of disaster and coping methods. Once general situations set in, foreigners staying in Korea will suffer from a vicious cycle of policy-making from the viewpoint of Korean and difficulties in obtaining relevant information. In this study, we conducted in-depth interviews on the recognition and acquisition path of disaster information for foreign workers living in Korea. Based on the results of the interviews, we derived implications for practical information, such as ways to understand and actively utilize information media frequently visited by foreign workers in Korea.

• Journal of the Society of Disaster Information
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.465-486
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• 2021

Purpose: Since most disaster information systems are centered on non-disabled people, the reality is that there is a lack of disaster information delivery systems for the vulnerable, such as the disabled, the elderly, and children, who are relatively vulnerable to disasters. The purpose of the service is to improve the safety of the disabled and the elderly by eliminating blind spots of informatization and establishing customized disaster information services to respond to disasters through IoT-based integrated control technology. Method: The model at the core of this study is the disaster alert propagation model and evacuation support model, and it shall be developed by reflecting the behavioral characteristics of the disabled and the elderly in the event of a disaster. The disaster alert propagation model spreads disaster situations collected using IoT technology, and the evacuation support model uses geomagnetic field-based measuring technology to identify the user's indoor location and help the disabled and the elderly evacuate safely. Results: Demonstration model demonstration resulted in an efficient qualitative evaluation of indoor location accuracy, such as the suitability of evacuation route guidance and satisfaction of services from the user's perspective. Conclusion: Disaster information and evacuation support services were established for the safety vulnerable groups of mobile app for model verification. The disaster situation was demonstrated through experts in the related fields and the disabled by limiting it to the fire situation. It was evaluated as "satisfaction" in the adequacy of disaster information delivery and evacuation support, and its functional satisfaction and user UI were evaluated as "normal" due to the nature of the pilot model. Through this, the disaster information and evacuation support services presented in this study were evaluated to support the safety vulnerable groups to a faster disaster evacuation without missing the golden time of disaster evacuation.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.139-149
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• 2001

The purpose of this study was to analyze characteristics related to the activity of Daily Living (ADL) and dementia among the elderly people who have Medicaid. The cross-sectional descriptive survey study was a nationwide randomization sampling among the population of elderly families who have Medicaid. The data were collected during the month of October, 1999 and total sample was 1,027 elderly people. There were major findings according to the studies. In the results of the ADL assessment most of elderly people were within the 24 to 45 point range. Also, 63.3% of elderly people who made 45 points do not need help when performing daily activities according to the 15 areas of activity components, and 4.9% of these people couldn't do their daily activities. The results of the Dementia assessment were 70.6% of elderly people were in the normal range, 21.7% have a mild case, and 2.8% have severe case of dementia. These were found by using instruments for mental states, which simplified to items of detection of early dementia. In the result of these tests, there was a significantly positive correlation between ADL and degree of dementia with the pearson correlation coefficients. As a result of these studies, the author recommend to strengthen function and organization of public health like a visiting nurse center for elderly people who are over 65 years old. In addition, the government should apply early detection and management system for dementia in the community continuously and cost-effectively, especially for elderly people who live alone and are vulnerable elderly as our priority.