• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.21-34
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• 2010

Objectives: The objective of this study was to investigate risk factors for falls in the elderly by life-cycle. Methods: This study used the data on 435 male and female elderly generated from a survey taken at 21 Welfare Centers for the Elderly in Seoul. The incidence of demographic characteristics, physical changes brought about with ageing, health-related behavior, chronic diseases, and environmental characteristics on falls in the elderly was analyzed. Hierarchical Logistic Regression analysis was also conducted to investigate the incidence by life-cycle (early-mid-late stage) and the results were used for predicting falls. Results: The incidence of risk factors on falls varied across life-cycle. Among the elderly in the early (ages from 65 through 74), marital status, the existence of a companion, the quality of sleep, the chronic diseases, and the condition of the bathroom floor were found to be related to falls. Among those in the mid-stage (ages from 75 through 84), sex, marital status, the existence of a companion, hearing capacity, sense of balancing, chronic diseases, the exclusive use of rooms, and the side bar with bath tub were found to affect falls. Finally, for the elderly in their late stage (85 years of age and older), drinking and vision were found to be related to falls. Conclusion: The incidence of risk factors on falls was found to vary according the stage in the elderly. A key implication of this finding is that falls prevention programs and interventions must be catered to specific age sub-groups.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.48 no.5
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• pp.615-628
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• 2013

The waterfall can be formed by difference between the height of up and down part in new channel, is formed by channel avulsion that rapidly changing of river channel course. This study described types and processes of waterfalls by channel avulsion, and analyzed rates and factors of waterfall recession, on object to 7 waterfalls in South Korea. Bulyeong falls at Uljin-gun, Yongchu falls at Yeongdeok-gun, Jikyeon falls at Yanggu-gun and Gwangpum falls at Uljin-gun are formed by natural incised meander cutoff. Samhyeongje falls at Taebaek-si and Guryong falls are formed by river capture processes, and Palbong falls at Chungju-si is formed by artificial channel cutting for farm land secured. The locations of waterfalls gradually moved to upstream over time by head erosion. The recession rates were measured by 3~4m/ka on Bulyeong falls, Yongchu falls, Jikyeon falls and Samhyeongje falls, to estimate of formation age. Recession rates of these 4 waterfalls were analyzed that have clearly positive correlations with drainage area, precipitation, corrosion and weathering capability of bedrock, and initial height of waterfall.

• Quality Improvement in Health Care
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.41-61
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• 2018

Purpose: Falls are one of the most frequent health events in medical institutions, however, they can be predicted and prevented. The Quality Improvement Nurse Society clinical practice guideline Steering Committee developed the Clinical Practice Guideline for the assessment and prevention of falls in adult people. The purpose of this study was to assess the risk factors for falls in adults aged 19 years and older, to present an evidence for preventing falls, formulate a recommendations, and indicators for applying the recommendations. Methods: This clinical practice guideline was developed using a 23-step adaptation method according to the Handbook for clinical practice guideline developer (version 1.0) by National Evidence-based Healthcare Collaborating Agency. Evidence levels and recommendation ratings were established in accordance to SIGN 2011 (The Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network). Results: The final 15 recommendations from four domains were derived from experts' advice; 1) assessment of risk factor for falls in adult 2) preventing falls and reducing the risks of falls or falls-related injury 3) management and reassessment after a person falls 4) leadership and culture. Conclusion: This clinical practice guideline can be used as a basis for evaluation and prevention of fall risk factors for adults, to formulate recommendations for fall risk assessment and fall prevention, and to present monitoring indicators for applying the recommendations.

• Physical Therapy Korea
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.123-131
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• 2021

Background: Only 2% of falls in older adults result in serious injuries (i.e., hip fracture). Therefore, it is important to differentiate injurious versus non-injurious falls, which is critical to develop effective interventions for injury prevention. Objects: The purpose of this study was to a. extract the best features of surface electromyography (sEMG) for classification of injurious falls, and b. find a best model provided by data mining techniques using the extracted features. Methods: Twenty young adults self-initiated falls and landed sideways. Falling trials were consisted of three initial fall directions (forward, sideways, or backward) and three knee positions at the time of hip impact (the impacting-side knee contacted the other knee ("knee together") or the mat ("knee on mat"), or neither the other knee nor the mat was contacted by the impacting-side knee ("free knee"). Falls involved "backward initial fall direction" or "free knee" were defined as "injurious falls" as suggested from previous studies. Nine features were extracted from sEMG signals of four hip muscles during a fall, including integral of absolute value (IAV), Wilson amplitude (WAMP), zero crossing (ZC), number of turns (NT), mean of amplitude (MA), root mean square (RMS), average amplitude change (AAC), difference absolute standard deviation value (DASDV). The decision tree and support vector machine (SVM) were used to classify the injurious falls. Results: For the initial fall direction, accuracy of the best model (SVM with a DASDV) was 48%. For the knee position, accuracy of the best model (SVM with an AAC) was 49%. Furthermore, there was no model that has sensitivity and specificity of 80% or greater. Conclusion: Our results suggest that the classification model built upon the sEMG features of the four hip muscles are not effective to classify injurious falls. Future studies should consider other data mining techniques with different muscles.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.34 no.6
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• pp.1081-1091
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• 2004

Purpose: This study was done to identify the risk factors associated with falls among patients with Parkinson's Disease(PD). Method: A retrospective study design was used through the collection of physiological and physical health, and psychosocial functions. Results: Of the 100 participants, fifty-nine(59%) reported one or more falls and seventy-one(71%) reported one or more near-falls. Anaverage 34.7 falls and 150.3 near-falls were reported in the previous year per person. Stage of PD, foot problems, balance, fear of falling, and activities of daily living were significantly associated with an increased risk of falls. Conclusion: The findings confirm the high risk of falling in PD patients. Also these results have implications for developing fall prevention programs for PD patients.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Traditional Landscape Architecture
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.65-75
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• 2015

The findings of basic study on the awareness of falls in terms of Gwanpokdo(Paintings of Viewing Falls) were drawn as follows. First, there is a difference in an esthetic sense that water brings depending on the ratio of falls, and Gwanpokdo(Fall Landscape) in which falls take up more than 20% of the canvas focuses more on falls so that it brings about the awareness of landscape through direct communication with nature. Second, the diagonal composition of the canvas has symmetry between falls and a person viewing the falls, which makes view point even clear. In addition, margins of the canvas were missing due to the effect of True-View Landscape Painting during the late Joseon Dynasty, and overall composition of using the entire canvas became popular. This overall composition is stable and disposed with lopsided composition, so this heightens sense of balance and the meaning of falls. Third, Gwanpokdo(Paintings of Viewing Falls) of Josoen Dynasty showed various types of viewing falls in distant view, but as the distance between falls and persons got closer in the latter part of Joseon Dynasty, falls were no longer utopia but it expressed a sense of beauty and aesthetic contemplation through direct communication with real nature. Fourth, Gwanpokdo(Paintings of Viewing Falls) of Joseon Dynast had many drawings of a person viewing falls and viewing behaviors such as Supyeong gyeong(level landscape), Amgang gyeong(lower landscape), Bugam Gyeong(higher landscape), and glimpse viewing. Fifth, rocks out of landscape elements make falls vivid and are so expressed as yin and yang that falls and rocks are well contrasted with each other, maximizing beautiful scenery of falls. Sixth, woody plant of Gwanpokdo(Paintings of Viewing Falls) was mostly pine trees which symbolized the literati's fidelity and integrity at that time and emphasized the firm meaning of transcending the nature, matching with symbolization of falls.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.11 no.5
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• pp.1564-1572
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• 2010

In this study, the falls detection and direction classification system was implemented using 3-axial acceleration signal. The acceleration signals were acquired from the 3-axial accelerometer(MMA7260Q, Freescale, USA), and then transmitted to the computer through USB interface. The implemented system can detect falls using the newly proposed algorithm, and also classify the direction of falls using fuzzy classifier. The 6 subjects was selected for experiment and the accelerometer was attached on each subject's chest. Each subject walked in normal pace for 5 seconds, and then the fall down according to the four direction(front_fall, back_fall, left_fall and right_fall) during at least 2 second. The falls was easily detect using the newly proposed algorithm in this study. The acquired signals were analyzed after 1 second from generating falls. The fuzzy classifier was used to classify the direction of falls. The mean value of the falls detection rate was 94.79%. The classifier rate according to falls direction were 95.83% in case of front falls, 100% incase of back falls, 87.5% in case of left falls, and 95.83% in case of right falls.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.43 no.5
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• pp.595-604
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• 2013

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify risk factors for pediatric inpatients falls. Methods: The study was a matched case-control design. The participants were 279 patients under the age of 6 who were admitted between January 1, 2004 and December 31, 2009. Through chart reviews, 93 pediatric patients who fell and 186 ones who did not fall were paired by gender, age, diagnosis, and length of stay. Five experts evaluated the 38 fall risk factors selected by the researchers. Results: In a general hospital, pediatric patients with secondary diagnosis, tests that need the patient to be moved, intravenous lines, hyperactivity, anxiolytics, sedatives and hypnotics, and general anesthetics showed significance for falls on adjusted-odds ratios. Conditional logistic regression analysis was performed to elucidate the factors that influence pediatric inpatient falls. The probability of falls increased with hyperactivity and general weakness. Patients who didn't have tests that required them to be moved and intravenous line had a higher risk of falls. Conclusion: These findings provide information that is relevant in developing fall risk assessment tools and prevention programs for pediatric inpatient falls.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Fundamentals of Nursing
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.444-452
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• 2012

Purpose: To explore the usefulness of previous fall history as a triage variable for inpatients. Methods: Medical records of 21,382 patients, admitted to medical units of one tertiary hospital, were analyzed retrospectively. Inpatient falls were identified from the hospital's self-report system. Non-falls in 1,125 patients were selected by a stratified matching sampling with 125 patients with falls (0.59%). A comparative and predictive accuracy analysis was conducted to describe differences between the two groups with and without a history of falls. Logistic regression was used to measure the effect size of the fall history. Results: The fall history group showed higher prevalence by 9 fold than the non-fall history group. The relationships between falls and relevant variables which were significant in the non-fall history group, were not significant for the fall history group. Falls in the fall history group were 25 times more likely than in the non-fall group. Predictive accuracy of the risk assessment tool showed almost zero specificity in the fall history group. Conclusion: The presence of fall history, the fall prevalence, variables relevant to falls, and the accuracy of the risk tool were different, which support the usefulness of the fall history as a triage variable.

• Journal of Korean Clinical Nursing Research
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.142-150
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• 2019

Purpose: The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficiency of the Humpty Dumpty Falls Scale as one of the falls risk assessment tools, and also to evaluate risk factors as predictors of falls in pediatric patient populations. Methods: In a retrospective, case-control design with data from the electronic medical records of 13 pediatric patients who fell and 1,941 who did not fall before matching and 429 who did not fall after matching by gender, age, diagnosis, and length of stay. Results: All the variables showed no significant differences after matching. At the cutoff score of 13, sensitivity, specificity, negative and positive predictive values were 92.3%, 37.1%, 99.9%, and 0.01%, respectively. The area under the Receiver Operating Characteristics was 0.597. The results from the logistic regression showed that the pediatric inpatient population who had higher risk scores was significantly associated with falls. The odds ratios ranged from 1.31 to 4.71 with 90% confidence interval. Conclusion: The saturation impairments criterion as one of the diagnostic parameter was negatively associated with falls, but the relative risk score was higher than the other criteria. Therefore, it seems that the diagnostic parameter seems to be required to verify results through large sample studies.