• Journal of the Korean Applied Science and Technology
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.102-112
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• 2019

This study is a quasi-experimental of one-group pretest-posttest design to verify the effects on loneliness, depression and self-esteem when conducted the cognitive function enhancement program for elderly people over 75 years old. It was carried out on 6 persons living in C North G Country who was subjected to elderly people over 75 years old for 10 weeks from September 26, 2016 to December 17,2016 in order to compare changes in loneliness, depression, and self-esteem. As a result, it was found that depression had noticeably decreased and self-esteem had significantly improved with the program. Thus, the cognitive enhancement program is thought to carry benefits as nursing intervention for the decrease in depression and the improvement of self-esteem in old-old elderly.

• Journal of People, Plants, and Environment
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.107-117
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• 2021

Background and objective: The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of a forest healing program in terms of depression, neuropsychological and physiological benefits for the elderly. Methods: For this purpose, we developed a forest therapy program for the elderly who are vulnerable to dementia and conducted a total of 11 sessions of forest therapy activities in a forest once a week. We measured the changes in depression, resting-state Electroencephalography(EEG) and heart rate variability (HRV) before and after the program. There were 60 subjects aged over 65 yesrs old. 30 subjects participated in the forest therapy program, and the other were in the control group. The Geriatric Depression Scale was used to measure the level of depression, neuroNicle FX2 (Laxtha, Korea) was used to measure the resting-state EEG, and photoplethymogram (ubpulse T1, Laxtha, Korea) was used to measure the HRV. Results: The results showed that the depression index of the experimental group improved with statistical significance after the program (experiment group = 3.267 decrease of the mean). In the EEG measurement, the alpha-peak frequency at rest (experimental group = 0.227 Hz increase of the mean) was improved (mean increase = 0.23 in the experimental group, p < .05). The high frequency of HRV, which represents the parasympathetic nerve activity of the body's autonomous response, was also significantly improved (mean increase = 0.396 in the experimental group, p < .05). Conclusion: The results suggest that the forest therapy program can reduce the cognitive, psychological and physical risk factors of dementia for the elderly at risk of cognitive decline. Therefore, forest therapy activities may be suitable for the prevention of dementia in the elderly.

• Dementia and Neurocognitive Disorders
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.44-53
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• 2024

Background and purpose: The anti-aging standard forest healing program (ASFHP), which uses forest therapy, was reported to be effective in improving psychological, physical, and cognitive functions. However, there are several challenges to directly visiting the forest. This study aimed to investigate the impact of multi-session ASFHP with forest visit on the mental and physical health of the older people with visits to forest facilities and compared them with those of the same program conducted indoors. Methods: Individuals aged over 70 years with concerns about cognitive decline were recruited at dementia relief centers and divided into control and experimental groups. A total of 33 people were administered ASFHP under the supervision of a forest therapy instructor. The control group stayed indoors, while the experimental group visited a forest healing center and repeated the program 20 weeks. Results: The multiple-session ASFHP positively affected cognitive impairment screening test (CIST) total scores (p=0.002), memory (p=0.014), Korean version of the Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status total scores (p<0.001), immediate recall (p=0.001), visuospatial/construction (p<0.001), language (p<0.001), forest healing standard questionnaire total scores (p=0.002), and cognitive function (p=0.019), regardless of location. The forest visits during the ASFHP showed positive effects on orientation (p=0.035), delayed recall (p=0.042), emotional stability (p=0.032), physical activity (p=0.005), and health (p=0.022). The CIST scores of the memory domain were the strongest indicator of the multiple-session ASFHP effects. Conclusions: The 20-week multi-session ASFHP with forest visit showed effects on cognitive improvement and physical and emotional stability compared to indoor education.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.19 no.9
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• pp.373-383
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• 2021

The purpose of this research was to develop an un-tact group counseling program to deal with the conflicts in the relationship of unmarried couples and to verify the effect of the program for improving emotional cognition and emotion regulation of unmarried couples. The research procedure consisted of the program development step and the program verification step, and in detail, 8 steps of program development processes were established. The subjects of the research were 11 unmarried couples, and 4 group were organized. The group counseling program was conducted once a week (2 sessions), a total of 10 sessions for 5 weeks. The effect was analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. As a result of quantitative analysis, the participant's relationship satisfaction was significantly improved and there was a significant change in some relationship emotional schemas of participants. As a result of qualitatively analysis through participant's program review, participant's emotional understanding and the couple relationship were improved, and the group effect of the couple group counseling was found. Finally, the significance and limitations of this study were presented.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.31 no.12
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• pp.1128-1141
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• 2021

'Angelica' is one of the most traditionally consumed medicinal herbs around Northeast Asia including Korea for treatments of various diseases or health care purposes like hematopoiesis, blood circulation for women, sedative, analgesic, and a tonic medicine etc. Angelica gigas Nakai, a Korean native species of Angelica, is clearly different from the others in containing a high concentration of active ingredients like pyranocoumarines including decursin, decursinol, and decursinol angelate. These compounds have various kinds of positive effects such as anti-tumor activity including the precaution of neutropenia occurred during anticancer drug administration, improvements of metabolic disorders, menstrual irregularity, impairment of renal function, respiration improvement, cognition-enhancement, anti-inflammatory effect, anti-oxidative effect, enhancing fertility and so forth. Thus it implies incredible potentialities in future development for foods and drugs. However, certain purity-related qualities and/or overdose in food products can cause side effects like toxicities; therefore, their safety profiles should also be considered. This review focuses on the positive and negative effects of three pyranocoumarines in Angelica gigas Nakai and some possibilities and considerations for future food and drug products development.

• Therapeutic Science for Rehabilitation
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.87-98
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• 2020

Objective : The purpose of this study was to verify the effectiveness of home-visit occupational therapy in stroke patients. Methods : Two patients with stroke who applied for home-based occupational therapy services at a health center in Seoul were enrolled. The home-visit occupational therapy program evaluates the subject's daily living, task performance, cognitive, and emotional functions, sets occupational therapy goals and plans interventions based on a client-centered approach. Occupational therapy programs consisted of 12 sessions based on the client's major problems. Results : COPM scores improved in both cases, there was an improvement in COPM scores, and in Case 2 there were improvements in MBI and K-MMSE scores. There was also an improvement in KGDS scores in Case 1. Conclusion : Home-visit occupational therapy was found to be effective in improving daily activities, cognition, and mental function of stroke patients. During home and community integration, continuous and continuous rehabilitation services need to be activated from institutional rehabilitation to community-based rehabilitation. Active home-visit occupational therapy is needed to promote physical, cognitive, mental and social access in stroke patients discharged from hospitals.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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• v.46 no.3
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• pp.79-91
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• 2018

This study proposes the difference of awareness and improvement plan of building-related landscape systems through a cognition survey of building owners, public officials, and experts. The main results are as follows. First, all three groups are highly aware of the need to secure urban green spaces. Even if private property rights are restricted, the level of awareness that green space should be secured for public benefit is high. The level of interest in the building-related landscape system was also surveyed to a greater degree. Second, the survey respondents, including the building owner group, answered that there is a need to strengthen the building-related landscape area standards. It can be seen that there is a need to revise the relaxation of the building-related landscape area standards through an amendment of the Building Ordinance in many local governments. Third, most municipalities are not equipped with an organizational system that can promote the work of building-related landscape. It is necessary to newly hire civil servants for landscape design, maintenance, and management specialization, or to expand co-working relationships with related departments. Fourth, building owners are interested in building-related landscape, but they do not know specific management methods and leave the landscape space. The municipality needs to offer guidance on landscape architectural design and construction methods that the building owners can easily follow and to support the voluntary landscape space management on the part of the local residents by supporting the trees. Fifth, in order to improve the building-related landscape system, it is necessary to verify the effect of the building-related landscape and spread a consensus. At the government level, in order to enable building owners to recognize the value of the landscape space in connection with an urban regeneration project, it is necessary to present an example of an excellent building-related landscape installation via a pilot project.

• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.99-119
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• 2006

Objectives: This study intends to understand the difference within group of social support level and the effect of social support to health behaviors and health status of the elderly by selecting the old of local society as target. Methods: Data were obtained from self-administered questionnaire of 8,688 persons, older than 65 years, living in a community. We measured the sociodemographic characteristics, social support(family support, other support, quality of support), physical health state(subjective health status, number of chronic disease), physical function state(activities of daily living; ADL, instrumental activities of daily living; IADL), cognition state(mini-mental state examination-Korean; MMSE-K) and depression state(short form of geriatric depression scale; SGDS), health behaviors(smoking, drinking, exercise, eating habit). Univariate, multinominal logistic regression and covariance structure analysis were employed to analyze factors affecting on the social support of the elderly. Results: When considering the degree of social support by the sociodemographic characteristics of the older adults, the family support, other support and quality of support is better when the old is male, young, high education and self-reported living status is good and it has significance statistically. When considering the relation between social support and health status, the family support, other support and quality of support is better when the old's subjective and objective physical health status is good. The family support, other support and quality of support is better when the old's subjective health status is better. The other support and quality of support is better when the old's ADL(activities of daily living) and IADL(instrumental activities of daily living) are good. The family support, other support and quality of support is better when the old's cognitive function and depression state is better. When considering the relation between social support and health behaviors, in case of smoking and drinking, the quality of support, family support and other support is better when the old smokes and drinks rather than the old does not. In case of exercise and eating habit, the family support, other support and quality of support is better when the old exercises and eats regularly rather than the old does not. It has significance statistically. From the result of performing covariance structure analysis by structural equation modeling(SEM) with two endogenous variable(health behaviors and health status) and one exogenous variable(social support), factor loading of health status is 0.74 and factor loading of health behaviors is 0.05. The social support explains health status of 55.4% and health behaviors of 2.9%. Conclusions: This study has the meaning that it finds the difference of social support generating from inside of the group for the old residing in city and country and specifies the effect that the difference of social support influences to health status and health behaviors. From now on, in the development of health improvement strategy of the olds, it is necessary to approach from inclusive aspect while considering psychosocial factor such as social support and social economical factor as well as health status.

• Journal of Industrial Convergence
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.21-31
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• 2019

In this study, The aim of this qualitative study was to investigate the effect of residential and itinerant education, as well as local social welfare services on the social adaptation behavior and self-efficiency of disabled students. To this end, a preliminary investigation, program execution, and post-examination was conducted on 5 disabled students during a period of 6 months from March 6^th of 2018 to September 5^th of the same year. The results of the study is as follows. First, residential and itinerant education as well as local social welfare services appear to be closely related to the social adaptation behavior of the disabled students, especially in terms of social cognition, interpersonal relations, social adaptation, and vocational function. Second, participating in local social welfare services has been proven to improve the self-efficiency of the subjects, leading to increased self-confidence and trust in their own abilities. As the result of this study was positively accepted by the residential educators, local social welfare service researchers, disabled center workers, volunteer workers, and family members of the students, it proposes a practical implication for creating more diverse social adaptation behavior improvement programs by connecting residential and itinerant education with local social welfare services.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.228-235
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• 2010

This study was performed to investigate the memory enhancing effect of Poria cocos Wolf (Hoelen cum radix) against scopolamine-induced amnesia in Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats. To induce amnesia, scopolamine (0.75 mg/kg) was intraperitonically injected into SD rats 30 min before starting behavior tests. We have conducted Morris water-maze and Y-maze tests to monitor learning and memory functions. Poria cocos effectively reversed scopolamine-induced memory impairment in SD rats which was represented by an improvement of mean escape latency in water-maze test and spontaneous alterations in Y-maze test. To elucidate possible molecule mechanism, we have measured mRNA as well as protein expression of acetylcholine esterase (AchE), choline acetyltransferase (ChAT), muscarinic acetylcholine receptor (mAchR), and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) using RT-PCR and Western blot analysis, respectively. Poria cocos increased mRNA levels of ChAT and mAchR in rat hippocampus compared with those in the scopolamine-injected amnesic group. In addition, protein expression of ChAT and BDNF was also elevated by Poria cocos intake. Furthermore, as an upstrem regulator, the activation of cAMP response element-binding protein (CREB) was assessed by immunohistochemistry. In this immunohistochemical analysis, the phosphorylation of CREB (p-CREB) was reduced by scopolamine injection, which was restored back to control levels by administration of Poria cocos. These results suggest that Poria cocos may improve memory and cognitive deficit in amnesia and have therapeutic potentials through up-regulation of ChAT, mAchR, and BDNF, which seemed to be mediated by activation of CREB.