• Journal of Computing Science and Engineering
• /
• v.6 no.1
• /
• pp.40-50
• /
• 2012

Increase in the number of older people due to demographic changes poses great challenges to the social healthcare systems both in the Western and as well as in the Eastern countries. Support for older people by formal care givers leads to enormous temporal and personal efforts. Therefore, one of the most important goals is to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of today's care. This can be achieved by the use of assistive technologies. These technologies are able to increase the safety of patients or to reduce the time needed for tasks that do not relate to direct interaction between the care giver and the patient. Motivated by this goal, this contribution focuses on applications of acoustic technologies to support users and care givers in ambient assisted living (AAL) scenarios. Acoustic sensors are small, unobtrusive and can be added to already existing care or living environments easily. The information gathered by the acoustic sensors can be analyzed to calculate the position of the user by localization and the context by detection and classification of acoustic events in the captured acoustic signal. By doing this, possibly dangerous situations like falls, screams or an increased amount of coughs can be detected and appropriate actions can be initialized by an intelligent autonomous system for the acoustic monitoring of older persons. The proposed system is able to reduce the false alarm rate compared to other existing and commercially available approaches that basically rely only on the acoustic level. This is due to the fact that it explicitly distinguishes between the various acoustic events and provides information on the type of emergency that has taken place. Furthermore, the position of the acoustic event can be determined as contextual information by the system that uses only the acoustic signal. By this, the position of the user is known even if she or he does not wear a localization device such as a radio-frequency identification (RFID) tag.

• Therapeutic Science for Rehabilitation
• /
• v.12 no.4
• /
• pp.9-22
• /
• 2023

The Lifestyle-DEPER (Decision, Execution, Personal Factors, Environment, Resources) model explains lifestyle formation. Lifestyles are shaped through the decision, execution, and habituation stages. Factors influencing the establishment of a lifestyle are categorized as environmental, resource, and personal. The environment encompasses our surroundings and social, physical, cultural, and virtual environments. Resources refer to what individuals possess, such as health, time, economic, and social resources. Personal factors include competencies, needs, and values. At the lifestyle establishment stage, each of these factors influences a different stage. These collective processes are referred to as events, encompassing both personal and social events. Health-related lifestyle factors include physical activity, nutrition, social relationships, and occupational participation. These are the goals of lifestyle intervention. The intervention strategy based on the Lifestyle-DEPER model, called KEEP (Knowledge, Evaluation, Experience, Plan), is a comprehensive approach to promoting a healthy lifestyle by considering lifestyle formation stages and their influencing factors. This study introduces the Lifestyle-DEPER model and presents a lifestyle intervention strategy (KEEP) to promote health. Further research is required to validate the practicality of the model after applying interventions based on the lifestyle construction model.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
• /
• v.13 no.8
• /
• pp.375-385
• /
• 2015

This study aims to identify geographical variations and factors that affect smoking rates. The data are collected from the Community Health Survey conducted between 2009 and 2011 by Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other government organizations. Correlation and multiple regression analysis were used to examine the factors influencing smoking rates. For the purpose of investigating regional variations, we employed a decision tree model. The study has found that the significant factors associated with geographical variations in the smoking rates were the rate of hazardous drinking, the completion rate of hypertension education, the experience rate of anti-smoking campaigns, stress awareness rate, hypertension prevalence, health insurance cost, diabetes prevalence, obesity rate, and strength training rate. Convergence-based analysis on geographical variations of the smoking rates is highly important when the regionally customized healthcare programs is implemented. In the future, it is necessary to develop effective program and customized approach for the regions of high smoking rates. Our study is expected to be used as meaningful data for the design of effective health care programs and assessments to lead effective non-smoking program.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
• /
• v.10 no.6
• /
• pp.303-310
• /
• 2012

In order to analyze factors that support effective health care delivery system, this study aimed to research general public's perception on the functions of medical institutions(based on the levels of treatment: primary care, secondary care, and tertiary care), choices of medical institution when contracted with an unfamiliar disease, and recognition of diseases based on their severities. We collected data using self-administered survey from 400 general public living in Seoul, S. Korea from April 25 to May 18, 2011. The analysis was conducted using frequency analysis, chi-square test, and t-test; we analyzed the data to see if there are differences based on gender, age, and level of education. The result of both recognition of functional differences of medical institutions and selection of medical institutions when contracted with unfamiliar diseases showed that there were no significant differences based on the gender; however there were significant differences when considering the age and education. Looking at the result of the knowledge of the disease classification based on its severity, there were significant differences in age, gender, and education. In order to provide sustainable and effective health care delivery system, utilization of primary care as well as education and promotion regarding the functional differences of medical institutions and classification of disease based on its severity need to be encouraged.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
• /
• v.12 no.2
• /
• pp.379-389
• /
• 2014

The purpose of this study is to optimize the patient(examinee) flow in a health examination center via a simulation model and to improve operational efficiency. Two experimentation scenarios were implemented into the simulation model to determine which proposed scenario provides better improvement in terms of the following performance measures: LOS(Length of Stay), staff utilization, and occupancy level. The simulation results demonstrated that there was no significant difference in response results of two scenarios. Although the original motivation of this study was suggest optimal policy for a patient(examinee) flow, the insight into applying simulation in efficiently managing hospital operations is of more value. Simulation approach is a powerful technique that supports efficient decision-making compared to traditional healthcare management approach based on past experience, feelings, and intuition. Therefore, the proposed experimentation model has wide applicability in healthcare systems.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
• /
• v.12 no.7
• /
• pp.327-336
• /
• 2014

This study aims to identify factors to affect regular utilization status of medical care in cardio-cerebrovascular patients. The research selected 770 cardio-cerebrovascular patients among surveyees from the Korea Health Panel 2010. We analyzed states of medical care utilization using descriptive statistics. Logistic regression analysis was used to examine the main factors associated with regular utilization status of medical care in cardio-cerebrovascular patients. In result, the significant factors associated with regular utilization status of medical care in cardio-cerebrovascular patients were age, education level, household income level. CCI, presence or absence of high risk drinking, and presence or absence of obesity. There's a high probability that patients aged between 60 and 69, equal to and higher than those of high school graduate in education level, upper middle class in household income, the higher CCI, absence of high risk drinking, presence of obesity utilize medical care services more regularly. Therefore, it is necessary to develop effective program and individualized approach for patients using lesser periodical medical care and patients with high risk drinking problem. In the future, these findings can be used an important data for healthcare policy and assessment.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
• /
• v.11 no.6
• /
• pp.245-256
• /
• 2013

This study was conducted in order to examine the quantity of health and medical statistics survey in Medical Records Offices which was required by outside institutions and whether it is profitable for the hospitals or not. The thirteen outside institutions required health and medical statistics of the 24 types of the survey to Medical Records Offices. 16.7% of health and medical statistics of the survey was paid to medical records offices such as the National Cancer Registration Survey, Patient Survey, Tuberculosis Patient Survey, and Hospital Discharge Patients Injury Survey. Medical Records Offices' total length of time for the health and medical statistics survey was over 200 hours per year like the National Cancer Registration Survey, Healthcare Accreditation System and Hospital Discharge Patients Injury Survey. The Medical Record Administrators in the hospitals with fewer than 500 beds work full time from 1 to 3. It is indicated in the study that it is necessary to improve the health and medical statistics survey system in Medical Records Offices required by the outside institutions and to employ additional Medical Record Administrator for more accurate Health and Medical Statistics Survey.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
• /
• v.13 no.4
• /
• pp.227-233
• /
• 2015

The recent health care is growing rapidly want to receive offers users a variety of medical services, can be exploited easily exposed to a third party information on the role of the patient's hospital staff (doctors, nurses, pharmacists, etc.) depending on the patient clearly may have to be classified. In this paper, in order to ensure safe use by third parties in the health care environment, classify the attributes of patient information and patient privacy protection technique using hierarchical multi-property rights proposed to classify information according to the role of patient hospital officials The. Hospital patients and to prevent the proposed method is represented by a mathematical model, the information (the data consumer, time, sensor, an object, duty, and the delegation circumstances, and so on) the privacy attribute of a patient from being exploited illegally patient information from a third party the prevention of the leakage of the privacy information of the patient in synchronization with the attribute information between the parties.

• Journal of rehabilitation welfare engineering & assistive technology
• /
• v.12 no.1
• /
• pp.53-62
• /
• 2018

In this study, we developed a smart 1RM system for national health management and physical fitness, which enables quantitative 1RM measurement in various types of exercise using digital pulley technology, and to test the effect on training by using it. We developed the smart 1RM system, which is composed of portable muscle strength measuring device, Bluetooth communication based mobile phone data transmission and circuit diagram, and height adjustable system body. We recruited the 30 participants with 20th aged and divided into training and non-performing groups with 15 participants randomly. The participants performed 5 sets of elbow, lumbar, knee extension / flexion 10 times using smart 1RM system and the experimental period was 3 days a week for a total of 8 weeks. The experimental results showed that the maximum strength of the elbow, lumbar, and knee joints was significantly improved before and after maximal muscle strength training in the training group. Oxygen intakes during 1RM exercise mode showed 10.91% than endurance. To verify the validity of the smart 1RM maximal strength data, the reliability was 0.895 (* p <0.00). This study can be applied to the early rehabilitation treatment of the elderly and rehabilitation patients more quantitatively using the national health care.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
• /
• v.18 no.2
• /
• pp.351-360
• /
• 2020

This study was designed to develop an online education program of elderly care service for the senior caregivers. Online survey was conducted senior caregivers who attended K cyber university from November 28, to December 15, 2019. Data were analyzed using chi-square, ANOVA and post test by scheffe method. The results showed that needs of the online education program for senior caregivers were significantly higher than nursing assistants. Social workers were significantly higher than the nursing assistants in the elderly care service online education demand. In terms of performance, 'understanding and counseling for the elderly' and 'practice of the elderly play program' were social workers, senior caregivers and nursing assistants. In conclusion, it is necessary to develop a specialized online education contents for each group according to the necessity of elderly professional care and the demand of online education for elderly care service.