• International Journal of Advanced Culture Technology
• /
• v.10 no.4
• /
• pp.19-27
• /
• 2022

The purpose of this study is to investigate the incidence rate, surgery tendency, and risk factors of cataracts among the elderly in Korea. The subjects were 40-95 years old men and women using the National Health Services' surgical statistics. Among the 33 major surgeries, which increased by 1.1% per year for the last 20years (1.6 million), the most operated surgery in 2020 was cataract surgery (454,000), the number of which was 858.8 per 100,000 people. Among the surgical patients, cataract patients (7.9% increased) was the third largest among the top (2016-2020) constantly with annually 2.2% increasing for 20 years (19.95 million). The medical expenses of major surgeries (excluding non-benefit) increased by an average rate of 9.3% per year over the 20 years (7,204 billion won) out of a total medical expenses of 7.2 trillion won, and the cataract surgery (813.2 billion won) was the second largest among the medical expenses in 2020 (top 3). This study showed that there was a high correlation between cataract and smoking, low income, and low-educated, whereas being no concentration of cataract patient in tertiary hospitals.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
• /
• v.61 no.1
• /
• pp.323-357
• /
• 2009

This study illuminates the mechanism of life course on labor status of old age complementing the limits of labor status hypothesis of old age and model of statues attainment and combining them. The main results from this analysis are summarized in four points. Firstly, older men mostly engaged in agriculture, forestry and fishing industry or low-class occupations. A very small portion held high level or professional occupations. Regular full-time employees or employers were only 4.4% while, about 70% of older employees were temporal employees or self-employed. This shows that the elderly affluence hypothesis which alleges that most older men maintain high level occupations, applies to only a few. The second finding is that wealth differentials are sizable: about 20% of older workers own less than 50 million won, while 9.3% possess more than 600 million won. Therefore, it is not safe to claim that most people have accumulated enough wealth for old age according to the elderly affluence hypothesis. This gap being mainly reflected by education level, suggests that the model of status attainment is appropriate as wealth accumulation hypothesis. Thirdly, educational level determined not only lifetime careers, but also labor status of old age. Fourthly, using path analysis, the last finding is that education had effect on labor status of old age through lifetime career and wealth. That is, old men who have low education level had unstable lifetime career and own less wealth. They work in low income job, low social occupations and unstable occupation type in old age. This shows that life inequality continues until old age. Therefore, the inequality of education opportunity, spread of part-time work and small scale self employees should be discouraged. Furthermore, related policy should be provided in order to prevent being caught in unstable work.

• Journal of dental hygiene science
• /
• v.19 no.3
• /
• pp.181-189
• /
• 2019

Background: Edentulism is associated with socioeconomic status, rural residence, and chronic disease, but no studies have investigated edentulism and residence factors together. All information that drives a better understanding of the factors related to edentulism plays an important role in the planning and delivery of appropriate dental services for the elderly by national and oral health professionals. This study was designed to investigate the prevalence of edentulism in adults aged over 60 years in Korea and to examine whether there are differences in dentate status between people living in urban and rural areas after controlling for sociodemographic and other related factors. Methods: The data for this study were collected from 2013 to 2015 as part of the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey VI, those individuals aged over 60 years and who had complete datasets were included (5,071). The number of teeth and residence status were categorized into two groups: edentate and dentate (1 or more); urban and rural. Multiple multivariate logistic regression analyses were sequentially applied to assess the association between dentate status and residence status after adjusting for potential confounders. Results: Rural areas, lower household income, and lower education levels were associated with a higher edentate rate. The number of teeth was lower in rural areas than in urban areas. After adjusting for various factors, statistically significant associations were present for women, low household income, low education level, poor perceived health status, and alcohol consumption in participants. Conclusion: Elders living in rural areas had poorer oral health than elders living in urban areas. The government will need to provide effective systems for promoting oral health for elders living in rural areas.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
• /
• v.60 no.4
• /
• pp.31-53
• /
• 2008

This study intends to verify the poverty characteristics of the rural elderly households so as to provide more specific data for the intervention of social welfare in the improvement of quality of life of the rural elderly. According to my study of the absolute poverty ratio, the poverty gap, the relative poverty ratio, the subjective poverty ratio, the subjective economic level and the life satisfaction level of the rural elderly households in comparison with those of the other groups, the conclusion is as follows: First, the total living cost of the rural elderly households is rather low with the food cost taking about 30% of the total living cost. Second, in terms of the poverty ratio based on socio-demographic characteristics, higher poverty ratio show among women, older people and households of fewer members. Third, 82.2% of the rural elderly households living with an income below the minimum living cost is found around the poverty line. Fourth, the rural elderly households show a comparatively higher poverty ratio than the other groups in the absolute and relative poverty, but lower economic strain than other groups in the subjective poverty ratio and life satisfaction level. In short, the rural elderly households' poverty level is generally high and therefore need ways of active economic supports, while a political approach to the subjective needs of the regional and intergenerational groups is also required.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
• /
• v.19 no.8
• /
• pp.351-359
• /
• 2021

This study was conducted to analyze the relationship between the practice of aerobic exercise and the prevalence and risk of arthritis with comorbid chronic diseases. For this study, the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2017-2019 data were used and 17,356 people were selected as subjects. The relationship between the practice of aerobic exercise and the prevalence and risk of arthritis according to demographic characteristics and chronic diseases was analyzed by the chi-square independence test and Breslow-Day test. While the rate of aerobic exercise was low among women, the elderly, the low-income group, the low-education group, and people living in rural areas, the prevalence and risk of arthritis were relatively high. And in the chronic disease-positive group, those who practiced aerobic exercise had a relatively lower prevalence and risk of arthritis than those who did not. In particular, the practice of aerobic exercise was an effective complement in reducing the prevalence and risk of arthritis in people with high blood pressure, diabetes, and dyslipidemia. Therefore, the practice of aerobic exercise such as walking, slow running, and aerobic dance should be recommended in terms of the preventive medicine and health care to people who are in the group with a high prevalence of arthritis in demographic characteristics and people who have comorbid chronic diseases.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
• /
• v.37 no.1
• /
• pp.12-22
• /
• 2012

Objectives: This study aimed to compare the nutritional risk, health status and depression levels of young-old (65-74 years) and old-old (75-84 years) women on low-income. Methods: A total of 624 elderly women, each over 65 years of age, participated in this study under the auspices of a community social center. Data were collected from June to August 2011 by means of personal interviews which employed questionnaires. The research tools used in this study were the nutritional risk measuring Mini Nutritional Assesment (MNA) by Kim (2000), perceived health status developed by Lawton et al. (1982), Elderly Depression Criterion developed by Sheikh & Yesavage (1985). The collected data were analyzed using the SPSS WIN 12.0 Program. Results: Nutritional risk, perceived health status and depression levels showed a significant difference between young-old and old-old. There was a positive correlation between nutritional risk and depression and a negative correlation between nutritional risk and perceived health status. A 38.2% variance in depression levels of young-old and a 29.7% variance in depression levels of old-old were explained by perceived health status, nutritional risk and the number of people living together. Conclusion: The findings demonstrate variances in depression levels among low - income women differing in age. As a result, the outcomes of this study ought to be employed in the development of future programs aimed at promoting the health of elderly women.

• Health Policy and Management
• /
• v.34 no.2
• /
• pp.141-155
• /
• 2024

Background: This study aimed to identified the relationship between the risk of obstructive sleep apnea, subjective health, and health-related quality of life among the middle-aged and elderly population in Korea. Methods: Adults aged 40 or older were extracted from the total 22,559 respondents to the 2019-2020 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey VIII, and secondary analysis was conducted on a total of 6,659 middle-aged and elderly people with no missing values. Logistic regression analysis and multiple regression analysis were conducted to examine the relationship between obstructive sleep apnea risk factors and subjective health as well as quality of life. Results: The subjective health status decline in the high-risk group compared to the non-risk group for obstructive sleep apnea was statistically significantly higher, with an odds ratio of 1.84 (p<0.001). The health-related quality of life was also statistically significantly lower by 0.02 points (β, -0.02; p<0.001). As a result of subgroup analysis on specific variables, the association between the risk of obstructive sleep apnea and subjective health and health-related quality of life was statistically significant depending on gender, sleep time, presence of depression, household income, and number of household members. Based on the obstructive sleep apnea risk group, women had a higher correlation with low subjective health and lower health-related quality of life scores than men. Sleeping time of more than 8 hours or less than 6 hours was more associated with low subjective health and lower health-related quality of life score than sleeping time of 6-8 hours. Patients with depression were more likely to have low subjective health than those without depression. The lower the household income level and the smaller the number of household members, the higher the association with low subjective health and the lower the health-related quality of life score. Conclusion: It is essential to recognize that the risk of obstructive sleep apnea not only directly affects sleep disorders but also impacts individuals' subjective health and quality of life. Consequently, social support and education should be provided to raise awareness of this issue. Particularly, programs for preventing and managing obstructive sleep apnea should target vulnerable groups such as women, individuals in single-person households, low household income, and those with depression, aiming to improve their subjective health and quality of life.

• Journal of the Korean Regional Science Association
• /
• v.35 no.4
• /
• pp.61-73
• /
• 2019

Urban development and densification have led to the Urban Heat Island Effect, in which the temperature of urban space is higher than the surrounding areas, and the intensity is increasing with climate change. In addition, when the city's air temperature rises in summer, low-income, elderly population, and socially vulnerable people who have health problems lack the ability to cope with the elevated heat environment. Therefore, this study aimed to identify the urban heat island area of Seoul through Hotspot analysis, which is a spatial statistics technique, and explored physical environments, demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of urban heat island effect areas using logistic regression models. This study performed urban heat island hotspot analysis using the average air temperatures of the 423 administrative dongs in Seoul. Analysis results identified that the urban heat islands were concentrated in Jung-gu, Jongno-gu, Yongsan-gu, and Yeongdeungpo-gu. Logistic regression analysis results indicated that urban heat island areas of Seoul were affected by residential floor area ratio, commercial facility floor area ratio, overall floor area ratio, impervious surface ratio, and normalized difference vegetation index(NDVI). In addition, as a result of analyzing the vulnerable area of thermal environment considering the demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of the heat island area, urban heat island areas of Seoul were significantly associated with the proportion of low-income elderly living alone. The result of this study provided useful insights for urban thermal environmental design and policy development that could improve the thermal environment for the socially disadvantaged urban population.

• Journal of Industrial Convergence
• /
• v.21 no.9
• /
• pp.77-87
• /
• 2023

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of social relations satisfaction of low-income middle-aged and elderly single-person households on individual subjective happiness and to verify the mediating effect of depression and gender control to provide basic data for the development of related policies and programs. The SPSS WIN 25.0 program used frequency analysis, technical statistics analysis, correlation analysis, and PROCESS MACRO Model Number 4 to verify the mediating effect of 482 middle-aged singleperson households extracted using the "17th Korea Welfare Panel in 2022" survey data. In addition, the control effect was verified using PROCESS MACRO Model Number 1. The results of the study first showed that social relationship satisfaction after controlling demographic characteristics had a positive effect on subjective happiness. Second, it was found that depression had a partial mediating effect in the relationship between social relationship satisfaction and subjective happiness. Third, it was found that the higher the satisfaction level of social relationships among women than men, the greater the sense of happiness. Through this study, it is meaningful in that it identified the meaning of social relationships of middle-aged and elderly single-person households and presented practical implications so that they can be used as basic data for policy support measures.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
• /
• v.43 no.3
• /
• pp.147-157
• /
• 2018

Objectives: The aim of this study is to measure health literacy levels and to identify health literacy related factors in vulnerable elders. Methods: The research design for this study was a descriptive survey design using convenience samples. Data collection was done by interviewing questionnaire with 200 elders from welfare centers in the cities. Data were analyzed by using percentage, Chi-square and multiple logistic regression with the IBM SPSS Statistics Ver. 24.0. Results: The results of this study are as follows: Vulnerable elders' sources of health information levels were very low, especially internet. In multiple logistic regression analysis, monthly income, sources of health information were significant accounted for OR 2.201, p<.05, OR 2.989, p< .01 health literacy. Conclusion: These results suggest that interventions for improving health literacy are necessary to enhance elders' finding of health information. Also, these results could be used in developing health literacy programs by internet.