• Journal of the Korea Society of Computer and Information
• /
• v.29 no.5
• /
• pp.39-46
• /
• 2024

In this paper, we propose a low-cost wearable device that can monitor the health status of the elderly living alone in real-time. As aging is accelerating, the elderly population is rapidly increasing, and the social isolation of the elderly living alone is causing physical and mental difficulties and the number of elderly people dying alone is increasing, becoming a social problem. In this study, we propose a belly band-type wearable device that can monitor the biometric information of elderly living alone. The proposed device transmits electromyogram, electrocardiogram, and body temperature information to a remote server through an Arduino-based sensor built into the abdominal band. Transmitted information can be monitored in a web environment in real-time, and it has the feature of enabling remote monitoring of a large number of subjects with a small amount of management manpower. The research results will contribute to improving the safety and welfare of seniors living alone by not only detecting lonely deaths in advance but also responding immediately to dangerous situations that may occur in daily life.

• Journal of Agricultural Extension & Community Development
• /
• v.17 no.2
• /
• pp.233-259
• /
• 2010

The purpose of this study is to find out about how are physical health, economical states and social relationships of women elderly living alone in an island. The measurement variables are subjective health status, satisfaction of life and a feeling of depression through Activities of Daily Life, social supports, social network and social relationship. First, the ADLs of the aged women living alone in the island are that can't do themselves 23.4%, and need to other's help on their walking 23.4%, bathing 6.5%, and going out 10.3%. Second, them answered that is very shortage or shortage with living expenses 46.8%. Average income in a month is under 200thousands won are account for 32% in a rural and 32.4% in an urban but the aged women living alone in an island are account for 35.1%. comparing with that they are living under the absolute poor with a small income less than 300thousands won. Third, social relationships of the aged women living alone in the island are living with an offspring in a same region 50.6%, a neighboring village 11.7%, and living with a relation in same region. At this study differs from other studies are about studying to be compared aged people between rural and urban area. This study is researched comprehensively about more fragility people.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
• /
• v.8 no.5
• /
• pp.716-725
• /
• 2003

In this study, the dietary behaviors, depression rates and nutrient intakes were assessed for elderly females living alone (ELA) and elderly females not living alone (ENLA). The subjects were 140 elderly females (living alone 70; not living alone 70) residing in Bucheon city. Dietary data were obtained using the 24-hr recall method. There were more subjects with low monthly incomes (less than 500,000 won) in the ELA group. The proportion of the ELA group which skipped at least one meal per day was 38.5% and the main reasons given were low appetite and depression. Fewer of the ELA group were observed to have smoking and drinking habits. However, the majority of the ELA smokers smoked more than 6 cigarettes per smoking. The drinking score of the ELA group was also higher than that of the ENLA group. The total score of depression for the ELA group was higher than that of the ENLA group. The total score of nutrition risk index (NRI) of the ELA group (8.09) was also higher than that of the ENLA group (2.31). The dietary assessment using the 24 hr-recall method showed that the ELA group had lower nutrients intakes, and significant differences were shown in the intakes of energy (1137 kcal vs 1275 kcal), animal protein, animal fat, carbohydrates, animal Ca, and animal Fe. There was a positive correlation between the NRI and the depression scores. However a higher NRI was associated with lower intakes for most of the nutrients in the ELA group.

• Journal of East-West Nursing Research
• /
• v.23 no.2
• /
• pp.97-106
• /
• 2017

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to identify the factors influencing the happiness according to gender of the elderly living alone. Methods: This cross-sectional study used the raw data from the 2015 Community Health Survey. The subjects of this study were 14,705 elderly people aged 65 years or older, of which 2,198 were male elderly and 12,507 were female elderly. Results: The factors influencing the happiness of both male and female elderly were household income, depression, subjective stress level, subjective health level, quality of life, and lack of required medical service experience (p<.05). In addition, the male elderly were affected by the age, and the female elderly were affected by education, sleep time, walking and breakfast practice, and health screening (p<.05). Conclusions: It is necessary to develop and apply programs that can reduce the stress to increase the happiness of the elderly living alone, and efforts should be made not to cause a blind spot in terms of the health and welfare of the elderly living alone.

• Physical Therapy Rehabilitation Science
• /
• v.11 no.1
• /
• pp.49-57
• /
• 2022

Objective: This study aims to conduct a comprehensive review of monitoring systems to monitor and manage physical function of community-dwelling elderly living alone and suggest future directions of unobtrusive monitoring. Design: Literature review Methods: The importance of health-related monitoring has been emphasized due to the aging population and novel corona virus (COVID-19) outbreak.As the population gets old and because of changes in culture, the number of single-person households among the elderly is expected to continue to increase. Elders are staying home longer and their physical function may decline rapidly,which can be a disturbing factorto successful aging.Therefore, systematic elderly management must be considered. Results: Frequently used technologies to monitor elders at home included red, green, blue (RGB) camera, accelerometer, passive infrared (PIR) sensor, wearable devices, and depth camera. Of them all, considering privacy concerns and easy-to-use features for elders, depth camera possibly can be a technology to be adapted at homes to unobtrusively monitor physical function of elderly living alone.The depth camera has been used to evaluate physical functions during rehabilitation and proven its efficiency. Conclusions: Therefore, physical monitoring system that is unobtrusive should be studied and developed in the future to monitor physical function of community-dwelling elderly living alone for the aging population.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
• /
• v.18 no.12
• /
• pp.293-302
• /
• 2020

This study was aimed to identify factors affecting the health related quality of life in elderly according to living type. This study used data from the 7th-3 Period Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Data were analyzed using the SPSS program. The health related quality of life of living-alone elderly was lower than that of living-together elderly. The significant predictors of health related quality of life of living-alone elderly were depression, subjective health status, age, stress. The significant predictors of health related quality of life of living-together elderly were depression, subjective health status, age, gender. injury, stress. These results suggested that the living type affect the health related quality of life. The influencing factors should be reflected in the relevant program development.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
• /
• v.9 no.5
• /
• pp.615-628
• /
• 2004

This study is designed to examine influences of living arrangements on psycho-social factors, health and nutritional status, dietary adequacy and meal service utility patterns of the elderly. Nutritional status was evaluated by Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA). Three hundred and nine elderly (110 men and 199 women) who participated in meal service in the Chung-buk province were investigated. Proportion of the elderly living alone, couples only, living with spouse and family, living with family without spouse; and living with other than family were 30.7%, 25.9%, 14.2%, 24.3% and 4.9% respectively. The mean age of the elderly was 74.1 years and the elderly who are living couples only and living with spouse and family were younger than those with other living status. Living arrangements seem to be related to psycho-social factors, health and nutritional status, and dietary quality. Those who live alone and live with other than family were mostly women and they have lower socio-economic status, psycho-social, health and nutritional status and dietary patterns compared with those of the elderly who are living with spouse or family. It was found that the elderly who live a couple only and live with spouse and family had better emotional, health and nutritional index than those of the elderly who live with family without spouse, especially in case of females. Most of elderly perceived that participation of meal service programs had a positive effect on their daily life and satisfied with meals. The elderly living alone and living with other than family were more frequently using meal service but had a negative attitude about the charged meal service for better quality than the elderly with other living status. The most important reason for all the elderly to participate in meal service was to meet their friends and then to get other services. Particularly those who are living alone and living with other than family showed lack of moivation to prepare and set the meal, and for them the economic reason is also important. They also replied that the poor health and lack of other help were the most difficult problems for them to prepare meals. It would be effective to provide nutritional services that meet specific needs of the elderly according to their characteristics and living environment.

• Journal of Community Nutrition
• /
• v.3 no.2
• /
• pp.103-109
• /
• 2001

With a continuous and steep increase in life expectancies, Korean society is expected to enter the aged society by year 2020. And as the number of elderly increases, the burden of medical and health care expenses for them becomes greater in every developed society. Hence, the preventive approach for chronic degenerative diseases remains to be the best solution for the above-mentioned problem and warranting optimal nutrition would be one of the most important approaches. We performed a nutrition survey on 585 older adults of 50 years of age and older, residing in 3 metropolitan areas including Daejun, Daeku and Kwangju. Anthropometry, including body composition analysis based on the bioelectrical impedance analysis using InBody 3.0 and dietary intake survey by semi-quantitative flood frequency questionnaires, were used in collecting data. As one of the most important factors affecting the health and nutritional status of the elderly, we focused on living arrangements. Analyses were performed on the data from 550 subjects only, after excluding statistical outliers. Three hundred and sixty-eight of them(66.9%) were female and the number of elderly(65 years of age and older) was 485. According to the statistical analyses, the female elderly were more vulnerable to malnutrition than the male elderly. And the older they befame, the less adequate they were in nutrient intake. In addition to this, the elderly living alone showed the poorest patterns of nutrient intake and anthropometry. Although the exact effect of living alone could differ among different sex-age groups, the fact that the elderly living alone is vulnerable to malnutrition would remain concrete. This raises the utmost necessity of nutrition intervention to be devised and directed to the targeted population, namely the living-alone elderly from the government level. The intervention may include nutrition education, nutrition counseling and support In forms of meal service by networking the efforts of central as well as local governments to ensure the good health of the Korean elderly.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
• /
• v.17 no.1
• /
• pp.74-82
• /
• 2006

Purpose: This study used MDS-HC 2.0 to identify health problems in the elderly who live alone. Method: The subjects of this study were 100 living-alone elders aged over 65 in Daegu city. This study was performed through home visiting interviews during the period from the 1st of September to the 30th of September 2005. Analysis in this study was made using SPSS Version 11.0. Results: Frequent health problems in the living-alone elderly were: preventive heath measure (90), health promotion (80), social function (78), visual function (75), depression and anxiety (61), pain and communication disorder (60), cognition (55), environmental assessment (48) and oral health (45) in order of frequency. Informal services were provided to 73% of the subjects for emotional support. IADL services were provided to 57% of the subjects, and ADL services to 66%. Conclusion: Nursing intervention programs based on health problems from MDS-HC 2.0 should be provided in order to cope with individual health problems and living-alone elders needs. The results of this study suggest that MDS-HC 2.0 is applicable to help decide nursing interventions for the elderly who live alone in community.

• Korean Institute of Interior Design Journal
• /
• v.25 no.2
• /
• pp.112-122
• /
• 2016

The study aims to furnish the data for the study of invigorating communities of various ages including old people living alone. Furthermore, it seems that the laddering method and kj method can be useful for the study of various attitude survey. This study attempted to extract necessary factors for space for community behavior of elderly people living alone using laddering survey method and KJ rule on a sample of elderly people who live alone in three different rental housings. The keywords that were drawn from the perception survey through laddering were divided into small, middle and large classification using KJ rule. Mostly identical keywords were extracted in the three complexes, implying that there is no difference of perception among the three complexes in this survey. According to the large classification where KJ rule was applied, there were six necessary factors for space for community activity of elderly people living alone in rental housing including spatial consideration, communication, resting space, nature-friendliness, health promotion and Secure identity, which were the same for all of the three complexes.