• 한국노년학
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.349-368
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• 2017

The purpose of this study is to empirically structure the patterns of baby boomer retirees'consumption and their effects on depression in later life. Using the 5th wave of Korea Retirement and Income Study(KReIS) in 2013, of baby boomers born in 1955 to 1963, we analyzed those who were completely retired(n=420). The Latent Profile Analysis(LPA) classified the empirical patterns of consumption and then a multiple regression analyzed the effect of consumption patterns on depression among these baby boomer retirees. The LPA results showed that the consumption patterns consist of five groups: (1) Basic life-oriented class(26.9%), (2) Balanced consumption class(29.3%), (3) Social life-oriented class(18.3%), (4) Leisure-oriented class(18.5%), and (5) Education-oriented class(7.0%). Baby boomer retirees' depression was associated with their consumption patterns. Specifically, the basic life-oriented class showed significantly lower depression than the education-oriented class. Other correlates such as higher education, having no spouse, lower subjective health, greater limitations in physical functions, having a diagnosed disability, having fewer children, higher dissatisfaction with leisure activities, and lower self-perceived economic status were associated with higher levels of depression in this study. These findings suggest meaningful implications for gerontological policy and practice for baby boomer retirees in Korea. In light of vulnerable retirement preparation, social services specialized for baby boomers should consider financial education for revamping consumption scale beyond asset management and long-term case management of pre and post retirement cases.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.177-191
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• 2022

Objectives: Recent epidemiological data reported that young adults in their 20 ~ 30s are a vulnerable population with unhealthy dietary practices and a few signs of deteriorated health indicators. However, there are no dietary guidelines that are specifically developed for the young adult population. This study introduces some data collection tools that are mostly used in the service design field, and demonstrates how these tools can be used in nutrition research for developing dietary guidelines for specific target groups. Methods: To understand the context of food choices among young people, 39 people were enrolled to complete a probes booklet. Thematic analysis and word cloud were performed to capture the main themes from the probes and a persona was developed based on the findings. Results: Data from the probes enabled us to grasp the various contextual meanings of eating practices among young people. Most participants understand what a healthy diet is and often have a willingness to practice it. However, there were very few participants who were following the practices. We created four types of persona for developing dietary guidelines: healthy eating, emotional eating, convenient eating, and trendy eating. Conclusions: Probes and persona were used in order to understand the lives of young adults and develop targeted messages. We hope that this introduction will be helpful to researchers who are looking for new ways of understanding their target population in the field of community nutrition.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.49 no.4
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• pp.218-227
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• 2023

Background: Since 2019, the Ministry of Environment has implemented a seasonal fine dust management system from December to March, targeting high PM_2.5 levels with the aim of reducing PM_2.5 concentrations and protecting public health. The focus of improving the seasonal management system lies in the atmospheric PM_2.5 levels. Considering the primary goal of protecting public health, it is necessary to analyze the policy effects from an exposure perspective rather than a concentration-based approach. Objectives: This study aims to quantitatively assess the improvement of indoor PM_2.5 levels and the health impacts of the seasonal management system by comparing the periods before and during its implementation in residential environments. Methods: PM_2.5 concentrations within residential environments in a metropolitan area were measured using an optical particle counter (IAQ-C7, K-weather, Ltd, Korea) at one-minute intervals during the pre-implementation period (November 21~25, 2022) and during the implementation period (December 19~23, 2022). Based on the measured PM_2.5 concentrations, a quantitative evaluation of cancer and mortality risks was conducted according to age and gender. Results: The results of comparing indoor and outdoor PM_2.5 concentrations before and during the implementation of the seasonal management system showed a decrease of approximately 56.6% and 47.9%, respectively. Health risk assessments revealed that both the safety-limit-based and safety-target-based Hazard Quotients (HQ) exceeded the threshold of 0.1 for children under 19 years of age, both before and after the implementation. The mortality risk decreased by approximately 47.9% after the implementation, with children aged 0-9 showing the highest mortality risk at 0.9%. Conclusions: The findings of this study confirmed the positive health impacts of the seasonal management system across all age groups, particularly children under 19 who are more vulnerable to fine dust exposure.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.302-316
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• 2023

Objectives: The study aim was to identify changes in the nutritional status of older adults during the COVID-19 pandemic according to household income and demographic characteristics. Methods: Study participants were 2,408 adults aged 65 and over who participated in the 2019-2020 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES). To examine changes in nutrient intake levels resulting from COVID-19, data of 2019 and of 2020 were compared. Study participants were divided into three groups based on household income level to compare these changes. The changes were compared according to household income level, age group, and household type. Results: Percentages of recommended intakes for energy, protein, and most micronutrients were the lowest for the low-income group of both males and females in 2020. The Mean Adequacy Ratio (MAR) score was the lowest for the low-income group in both years. When comparing nutrient density for 2019 and 2020 by income group, the male low-income group experienced a decrease in nutrient densities of vitamin A, thiamine, calcium, and iron. For the same group, a decreased percentage for energy intake from protein was noted. Fruit intake was lowest in the low-income group for both males and females. Low-income males had the lowest intake levels for meat, fish, eggs, and legumes in both 2019 and 2020 and the lowest milk and milk product intake levels in 2020. Older adults living alone or single older adults with children had lower MAR scores than those living with a spouse. Older adults living alone experienced decreases in energy and thiamine and iron intake levels in 2020 compared to their intake levels in 2019. Conclusions: Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, nutrition intake levels worsened for older adult males in the low-income group and older adults living alone. This finding shows the need for a more systematic nutritional support strategy for the vulnerable older adults population in national disaster situations.

• Journal of the Institute of Convergence Signal Processing
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.166-172
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• 2022

In this study, we photograph driving obstacle objects such as crosswalks, side spheres, manholes, braille blocks, partial ramps, temporary safety barriers, stairs, and inclined curb that hinder or cause inconvenience to the movement of the vulnerable using electric mobility aids. We develop an optimal AI model that classifies photographed objects and automatically recognizes them, and implement an algorithm that can efficiently determine obstacles in front of electric mobility aids. In order to enable object detection to be AI learning with high probability, the labeling form is labeled as a polygon form when building a dataset. It was developed using a Mask R-CNN model in Detectron2 framework that can detect objects labeled in the form of polygons. Image acquisition was conducted by dividing it into two groups: the general public and the transportation weak, and image information obtained in two areas of the test bed was secured. As for the parameter setting of the Mask R-CNN learning result, it was confirmed that the model learned with IMAGES_PER_BATCH: 2, BASE_LEARNING_RATE 0.001, MAX_ITERATION: 10,000 showed the highest performance at 68.532, so that the user can quickly and accurately recognize driving risks and obstacles.

• Journal of the Korean Burn Society
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.12-15
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• 2016

Purpose: Firefighters are vulnerable to burn injury during firefighting. In extensive fires, conducted heat and radiant heat can cause burn injury even though firefighters are not directly exposed to fire. There has been increasing interest in the health problems of firefighters considerably since Hongje-dong fire of 2001, which claimed the lives of six fireman. However, there have been no studies done on the characteristics of firefighter burn injuries in South Korea. Therefore, we investigated the characteristics of firefighter burn injuries in a burn center. Methods: A retrospective, single-center research was performed between Jan 2006 to Dec 2015. 24 firefighters came to the burn center. The electronic medical records of patients were reviewed. Results: Flame burns (87.5%) were the major cause of burn in firefighter. All the patients suffered second-degree or third-degree burns. Mean burn size was 6.1±6.7%. 22 of 24 patients were hospitalized and 2 of 22 hospitalized patients admitted to intensive care unit. Mean length of hospitalization was 29.1±23.7 days and mean length of intensive care unit hospitalization was 6.0±1.4 days. The face was the site most commonly burned, representing 25.8% of injuries. The hand/wrist, upper extremity, and neck were the next largest groups, with 19.4, 12.9, 11.3% of the injuries, respectively. Conclusion: Firefighter burn injuries occur to predictable anatomic sites with common injury patterns. The burn size was small but, admitted patients need about 30 days of hospitalization.

• 한국노년학
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.213-229
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• 2019

The purpose of this study was to examine various factors influencing the needs of Seoul's newly implemented outreach community services for older adults, and to suggest the direction of the outreach community health services in Seoul. A multi-level regression was conducted using data collected by face-to-face interviews from 1,000 individuals aged 65 and 70 in 17 districts, where participated in the Seoul's outreach community services. The results demonstrated that socioeconomic status (higher income and living alone), health status (having multiple chronic conditions and depression, lower health literacy), limited experience of the outreach community services, and low government trust at the individual level were associated with higher unmet need for the community outreach services. In addition, shorter participation period of the outreach services and financial independency at the district level were associated with higher unmet need for the services. The findings from this study implies the need for improving the quality of services by focusing on vulnerable groups such as individuals with lower income and worse health status. In addition, the outreach community health services may need to target individuals aged 66 to increasing efficiency of the services through utilizing results of life-cycle health checkup by the National Health Insurance Corporation.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare Studies
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.267-290
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• 2011

This research attempts to analyze the effects of demographic factors, socioeconomic factors, health behaviors and social/familial supports on health inequalities among Korean elderly. For this end, this study adopts the multiple linear regression analysis to process data on population aged over 65 contained in 'The Third Korea Welfare Panel Study' published in 2008. The following are the results. First, the less educated they are, the smaller income they earn, the less they drink, the less satisfied with relationships with their family members, the more they turn out to feel depressed. Second, the less educated they are, the smaller income they earn, the less they drink, the less they are satisfied with relationship with family members, the more they benefit from social welfare services, the worse they turn out to rate their health. Based on these findings, three following suggestions could be forwarded. First, vulnerable aged groups including female elderly, low-income elderly, less-educated elderly need customized social supports. Second, new social policy for households is required to enhance elderly people's satisfaction with their family relationships with the rapid trend of a growing number of nuclear families and aging. Third, social welfare service programs need to be reevaluated to enhance their function for the aged.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.29 no.7
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• pp.713-723
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• 2023

Climate change is significantly affecting coastal areas, and its impacts are expected to intensify. Recent studies on climate change adaptation and risk assessment in coastal regions increasingly integrate the concepts of recovery resilience and vulnerability. The aim of this study is to develop a measurement model for coastal hazard recovery resilience in the context of climate change adaptation. Before constructing the measurement model, a comprehensive literature review was conducted on coastal hazard recovery resilience, establishing a conceptual framework that included operational definitions for vulnerability and recovery resilience, along with several feedback mechanisms. The measurement model for coastal hazard recovery resilience comprised four metrics (MRV, LRV, RTSPV, and ND) and a Coastal Resilience Index (CRI). The developed indices were applied to domestic coastal erosion cases, and regional analyses were performed based on the index grades. The results revealed that the four recovery resilience metrics provided insights into the diverse characteristics of coastal erosion recovery resilience at each location. Mapping the composite indices of coastal resilience indicated that the areas along the East Sea exhibited relatively lower coastal erosion recovery resilience than the West and South Sea regions. The developed recovery resilience measurement model can serve as a tool for discussions on post-adaptation strategies and is applicable for determining policy priorities among different vulnerable regional groups.

• The Journal of The Korea Institute of Intelligent Transport Systems
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.127-136
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• 2023

Gyeonggi Province has established a bus information system to provide real-time bus arrival information, aiming to make bus usage convenient for its residents. While the Gyeonggi bus information system is becoming more advanced through the application of IT technology, there are still information-vulnerable groups finding it difficult to use. In particular, the elderly have a low level of digital information literacy and habe difficulty using it. In this regard, this study aims to address the information usage disparity among the elderly in public transportation by utilizing expert in-depth survey methodology known as the Delphi technique. The study classified the policy initiatives that Gyeonggi Province should undertake into three categories: user education and expanded promotion, technological development and dissemination, and providing convenient usage environment. Through two rounds of surveys, the study assessed the priority of ten specific sub-tasks within these categories. Additionally, it gathered opinions on the effectiveness and feasibility of each item. The results yielded prioritization and evaluation of effectiveness and feasibility for nine sub-tasks. Based on these outcomes, the study proposed future projects that Gyeonggi Province should implement to address the information disparity among the elderly, offering a comprehensive approach to bridge the gap.