• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
• /
• v.50 no.1
• /
• pp.1-9
• /
• 2017

Objectives: By the end of the 2000s, the economic situation in many European countries started to deteriorate, generating financial uncertainty, social insecurity and worse health status. The aim of the present study was to investigate how the recent financial crisis has affected the lifestyle health determinants and behaviours of older adults living in the Mediterranean islands. Methods: From 2005 to 2015, a population-based, multi-stage convenience sampling method was used to voluntarily enrol 2749 older adults (50% men) from 20 Mediterranean islands and the rural area of the Mani peninsula. Lifestyle status was evaluated as the cumulative score of four components (range, 0 to 6), that is, smoking habits, diet quality (MedDietScore), depression status (Geriatric Depression Scale) and physical activity. Results: Older Mediterranean people enrolled in the study from 2009 onwards showed social isolation and increased smoking, were more prone to depressive symptoms, and adopted less healthy dietary habits, as compared to their counterparts participating earlier in the study (p<0.05), irrespective of age, gender, several clinical characteristics, or socioeconomic status of the participants (an almost 50% adjusted increase in the lifestyle score from before 2009 to after 2009, p<0.001). Conclusions: A shift towards less healthy behaviours was noticeable after the economic crisis had commenced. Public health interventions should focus on older adults, particularly of lower socioeconomic levels, in order to effectively reduce the burden of cardiometabolic disease at the population level.

• The Korean Journal of Rehabilitation Nursing
• /
• v.15 no.2
• /
• pp.100-108
• /
• 2012

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to compare healthy life style and chronic disease management between urban and rural older adults. Methods: The study employed a comparative and descriptive survey design. Data were collected from 154 older adults living independently in communities (79 from urban and 75 from rural areas) using structured questionaries from 24 July, 2010 to 14 August, 2011. Results: Perceived health status was significantly lower in urban older adults than those in rural areas ($x^2$=13.27, p = .001). Frequency of regular health examination was better in the urban group than the rural group ($x^2$=4.71, p = .030). Among older adults with hypertension, medication noncompliance was higher, and participation rate in disease management education was lower in the rural group than the urban group ($x^2$=6.43, p = .040; $x^2$=23.51, p<.001, respectively) and the same as arthritis. Conclusion: Rural older adults had more problems with health and disease management in this study, might be, due to difficulties in access to health care services than urban residents. More tailored programs of disease management as well as health service programs and staffing should be developed in rural areas. For urban older adults, meal preparation program and more opportunities producing income may be needed.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
• /
• v.22 no.4
• /
• pp.75-82
• /
• 2021

The purpose of this study was to review literature about private health insurance (PHI) schemes for Korean older adults published in Korea and abroad from 2015 to 2019, and to present the implications of the study and provide an overview of PHI utilization by Korean older adults. Nineteen quantitative academic research papers were selected and analyzed with respect to presentation time, research purpose, data source, and study design. Old age, low income, low education, and chronic disease were found to hinder enrollment in PHI schemes. Although the relationship between PHI and medical usage was not consistent, it was positively related to health outcomes such as subjective health status and health-related quality of life. Therefore, for PHI to fulfill the role of providing supplementary medical care for older adults with high medical demands, a national improvement policy should be developed to address the barriers that prevent older adults adopting PHI schemes, and empirical studies related to medical usages by and the health outcomes of older adults should be conducted in order to generate a basis for the use of PHI.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
• /
• v.12 no.1
• /
• pp.187-201
• /
• 2001

This study was conducted to investigate the health status and health promoting behavior of older adults in rural area. The design of research was descriptive study. 883 older adults over sixty years living in the rural area of Pusan city were surveyed from July 9. 1999 to July 20. 1999 through direct interview using a questionnaire and physical examination. The collected data were analyzed for percentage. mean. Chi square-test. ANOVA using the SPSS computerized program. The main results were as follows: 1. 43.4% of subjects lived alone or with only partner. 2. 37.13% of subjects had perceived own health condition as bad. 3. Major 'chronic diseases that the subjects were suffered were diabetes(25.94%) and hypertension(9.11%). 4. The mean score of perceived depression was 17.71 of 44. 5. 87.98% of subjects replied that they had good relationship with their family and friends. 6. 8.57% of subjects were identified as over weight. while 10.85% were low weight. 7. 29.93% of subjects replied that they were smoking. By the group. the rate of smoking of man was significantly higher than women. and lower age group than higher age group, and higher education group than lower education group. 8. 70.38% of subjects didn't practice exercise. By the group, the rate of exercise of woman was significantly lower than man, and higher age group than lower age group, and lower education group than higher education group. 9. 12.33% of subjects replied for the frequency of drinking as more three -times a week. By the groups. man showed significantly more frequency than woman. the lower age group than higher age group, the lower education group than the higher education group. 11. The mean score of nutrition state was 3.73 which means moderate risk state. 12. The 57.53% of subjects replied, their sleeping time as below 7 hours. 13. The 15.75% of subjects had experience a periodical inspection. In conclusion, older adults in rural area were identified having various health risk factor, Looking at the results. It is necessary to develope health promotion program which enhances older adults to practice health promoting behavior and to manage their chronic disease.

• Korean Journal of Cognitive Science
• /
• v.34 no.2
• /
• pp.67-84
• /
• 2023

In this study, Korean older adults (70-75 yrs) were divided into two groups according to the degree of reading exposure, and real-time data were collected through a reading eye movement tracking experiment. Then, overall reading patterns and word frequency ef ects were compared with two groups of older adults and younger adults (20-28 yrs). Furthermore, through the results of the eye movement tracking experiment of older adults with rich reading exposure and older adults with poor reading exposure, we tried to find out whether reading performance af ects not only changes in age but also reading exposure. As a result of the experiment, the older adults with poor reading exposure group generally had a longer fixation time and a shorter saccade than the younger adults group, and the older adults with rich reading exposure group showed the same reading patterns as the younger adults group. The word frequency ef ect was confirmed in all groups, and the fixation time was short in the order of older adults with rich reading exposure group and older adults with poor reading exposure group. In addition, an interaction ef ect was shown in the two elderly groups according to reading exposure, but no interaction could be confirmed in the dif erence between the younger adults group and the older adults with rich reading exposure group. This suggests the possibility that reading performance is not af ected by age itself, but by the reading experience of the elderly.

• 한국노년학
• /
• v.29 no.1
• /
• pp.51-69
• /
• 2009

The purpose of this study was to identify the effects of death education on attitudes toward death and depression for older adults. A death education program consisted of needs of death education, alternatives for dignity on death, not ending death(I, II), hospice(I, II), and 9 patterns of death(I, II, III). Participants in this study were 38 older adults aged 60 years or older. Attitudes toward death and depression scales for Korean elders were employed. The data collection and intervention were performed from January to June, 2008. The subjects participated in a death education program for 1 time per week during 10 weeks. The data were analyzed with t-test, and Pearson correlation coefficients with SPSS/Window 14.0. After the intervention, the subjects showed significant difference in attitudes toward death compared to that of pre-intervention. The subjects after the intervention showed no statistical differences in change of depression compared to that of pre-intervention. Also, attitudes toward death were negatively related with depression both before and after interventions, but the change of relation was not significant. The findings of this study contributed to extend the base of program developments on death education enhancing attitudes toward death among Korean older adults.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture
• /
• v.22 no.2
• /
• pp.235-245
• /
• 2007

This study was undertaken to develop web-based nutrition information contents for the older adults. Twenty six domestic web-sites were analyzed and then 12 foreign web-sites and 4 education materials for the elderly of foreign university were benchmarked. Also a lot of literatures on elderly education program were reviewed. A card-sorting task was performed with 8 older adults to ascertain how the target audience organized information about nutrition. The results were as fellows. Among 26 domestic web-sites, 2 sites(7.7%) were only for the elderly. Main topics of information contents for the elderly included 'Importance of Healthy Eating', 'DRI', 'Dietary Guidelines'. Four of twelve foreign web-sites were for the elderly nutrition education. Topics of 'Dietary Guideline', 'Meal Program' were found in 4 sites and 'Importance of Healthy Eating', 'Diet & Disease', 'DRI, 'Food Guide Pyramid', 'Nutrition Fact Labels' were found in 3 sites. Education materials of foreign university dealt with basic information on 'nutrient needs changes related with aging', 'Heart & Bone Healthy Eating Plan', 'Food Guide Pyramid'. Also topics on 'Eating on a budget', 'Eating Out Guideline' were included for practical use for the elderly. Based on card-sorting process, contents framework for web-site was developed and 4 main menus for framework were respectively named as 'Nutrition', 'Meals', 'Foods'. 'Check up Nutritional Health' by panel discussion. Finally we developed nutrition information contents for 4 main menus. We focused on helping older adults recognize the importance of healthy eating and apply the nutrition information to practical use. We expect that the developed framework of contents can be a guideline for indentifying the information needs of older adults in developing effective nutrition intervention program. And we suggest that the survey for target people should be peformed for the web-site to be user-friendly designed and the developed contents be evaluated and revised in the near future.

• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
• /
• v.25 no.4
• /
• pp.67-82
• /
• 2008

Purpose: The objective of this study were to examine the determinants of self-rated health, specially focused on the effect of functional capacity of community dwelling sedentary older adults on self-rated health. Method: The data has been collected from 654 community-dwelling sedentary older adults (mean age: 75 years) during the period from April to June in 2007. The data were collected by the in-person interview and direct measurement of functional capacity. The data were analyzed using chi-square test and multiple regression analysis with the SPSS 9.1 program. Result: The elderly rated their health as very good (3%), good (28%), fair (38%), poor (29%0, and very poor (2%). The higher average daily walk minutes ($\beta$=0.12, p<.01), number of chair stand ($\beta$=0.10, p<.05), scores of self-efficacy ($\beta$=0.16, p<.001) and the lower number of disease ($\beta$=-0.44, p<.001) show better self-rated health. Conclusion: Self-rated health is the most commonly used indicators in social epidemiology and geriatric research because it has been known as the good predictor of mortality and reflects health related disability. The finding suggested that daily walking habits, lower body strength, physical self-efficacy should be considered to improve the senior's self-perception of health. The community-based intervention associate increase these factors should be considered.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
• /
• v.32 no.4
• /
• pp.445-456
• /
• 2021

Purpose: This study was conducted to investigate the effects of a community-based death education program for older adults. Methods: The study was conducted as a quasi-experimental study with a non-equivalent control group and pretest-posttest design. The subjects were community elders aged over 65 registered at a community health center and were convenience sampled. The experimental group consisted of 33 participants and the control group consisted of 32 participants. Experiments are conducted from June 18 to July 24, 2020. We tested our hypothesis using an independent t-test, and paired t-test. Results: The experimental group had significantly higher scores for psychological well-being than the control group after treatment (t=2.24, p=.028). In general attitude toward the use of life-sustaining technology, however, only the experimental group had a significant difference before and after the experiment with lower scores compared to the control group (t=-5.41, p<.001). Conclusion: We found that the community-based death education program developed in this study was partially effective in improving older adults' psychological well-being and general attitude toward the use of life-sustaining technology.

• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
• /
• v.7 no.2
• /
• pp.89-102
• /
• 1990

The research is a comparative study of death attitudes between male and female elderly people. There is no doubt as to the inevitability of death. And yet, there is a vast conspiracy involved in the word of dead or death. The aged are considered to be nearer death than are people in other age groups. Kalish(1976) emphasized that for the aged two meanings of death have significance for evaluating their life ; first, that older people are known to have a limited life time and face death ; second that older people are known to have suffered many death-imposed losses that are often associated with the dying process. In considering these implications, the level of anxiety regarding death and dying is a crucial factor in determining mental health. In the study, 152 male elderly and 145 female elderly residing in Seoul, Korea was compared on the four dimensions of death anxiety and assigned personal variables. Therefore, the purpose the research was (1) to examine the characteristics of subjects on the independent variables(age, marital status, family relationship, social activities, religiousity etc.) ; (2) to examine the relationship between the independent variables and each dimension of death axniety ; (3) to determine the proportion of variance in the respective of death anxiety which is accounted for by the respective independent variables ; (4) to examine whether a significant difference between the respective independent variables and each dimension of death anxiety has ; (5) to determine the combination of variables which is the most successful in explaining the variance in death anxiety. Finding from this study support the following conclusions; 1. There was a significant differences between the male and female subjects in the level of death anxiety. In turn, the male older adults had lower death anxiety than did the female elderly. This implies that male tend to look forward to death rather than deny it. 2. As there was evidences from several studies, this research found that fear of death decreases as age increases. 3. The following two variables that correlate best with dying anxiety of others in both male and female older adults : 'marriage life', 'social interaction'. 4. The variables 'age' and 'children' for both female and male elderly accounted for the most variance in death anxiety of self. The findings of the study lend this investigator several suggestions, implications and recommendations for future research. There can be no death without life, and conversely, no life without death. Psychologists and health-related professionals may be learn as much about death as they can in order to develop more healthy attitudes and in order to be able to better aid and comfort dying people and their familities. Perhaps most importantly, professionals may be help those who are not faced with death at present to develop an understanding of it and healthy attitudes toward it. The programs of death education are needed for dedication to the evitability of death and the preparation of life for the older adults. More seminars, symposiums and research on death attitudes are needed. Finally, study for female older adults has been negelected topic in the areas of women's study and health education. Future study, for female elderly, have to deeply investigate where those problems come from and how to cope with in order to the female elderly segment can live the rest of their lives in satisfaction with well-being.