• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.47 no.4
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• pp.562-574
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• 2017

Purpose: This study attempts to explore the subjective experience of frailty among elderly individuals in Korea. Methods: From June to August in 2014, 11 elderly persons who had experienced frailty in a community were interviewed. For data analysis, the method suggested by Colaizzi was applied as a phenomenological method. Results: According to the analysis, the study participants' frailty process was structured in seven categories: (a) 'natural phenomenon with ageing,' (b) 'life force comes to an end,' (c) 'the light in my heart turns off,' (d) 'unavoidable situation,' (e) 'continuous and connected vicious cycle,' (f) 'the limit of recovery energy already passes,' and (g) 'life is supported by someone's help.' Conclusion: The frailty experience in the participants is a natural process of aging, which cause vicious cycle acting with each other among physical, psychological, and social health. It is said that the cycle of frailty was started from weight loss and insufficient sleep, and boostered by pain. The participants from repetition of the vicious cycle become exhausted and pass the threshold of their recovery energy at some points. If they meet with sudden accidents such as falling, traffic accident and so on, they become to live a dependent life supported by someone's help in a moment. To prevent frailty and worsening conditions in Korean elderly individuals, it is recommended to provide a interventional programs using this study's results.

• Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.347-357
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• 2020

Objectives: The purpose of the study was to investigate the relationship between frailty and oral health among some elderly community residents. Methods: A self-reported questionnaire was completed by 240 elderly in the Gwangju-Jeonnam area from October 1, 2019, to November 30, 2019, based on convenience sampling. The questionnaire consisted of general characteristics of the subjects, frailty level (Kihon checklist), and Geriatric Oral Health Assessment Index. Results: There were 66 (27.5%) frail elderly, and the GOHAI group with a score less than 45 constituted 187 (77.9%), which was higher than the group with a score of 45 or higher. The distribution of the frail elderly was indicated to be higher in the people with older age (p<0.05), lower educational level (p<0.01), current economic inactivity (p<0.05), living alone (p<0.01), more chronic diseases (p<0.01), and GOHAI score below 45 (p<0.01). Compared to those with a good oral health-related quality of life, those with a poor quality of life showed a 3.03 times higher risk of frailty (95% CI=1.291-7.107)(p<0.05). Conclusions: By recognizing the need for oral health care of the elderly through these results and by identifying the relationship between frailty and oral health, it is possible to consider oral health as a predictor of frailty.

• Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.1-9
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• 2024

Frailty is a clinical syndrome as an increased vulnerability to stressors, leading to a decrease in physiologic reserves and a decline in the ability to maintain a good homeostasis. This condition leads to an increased risk of hospitalization, disability and mortality. Frailty occurs due to various causes and requires a multidimensional approach. It is also important to detect and manage it early. Frailty is also deeply related to neuropsychiatric problems such as pain and depression. In evaluating frailty, it is desirable to comprehensively consider not only physical areas such as disease, nutrition, movement, and sensory functions, but also psychosocial areas, and representative scales include Fried's physical frailty phenotype and Rockwood's frailty index. Physical activity and appropriate protein intake are important for frailty management, and inappropriate drug use should be reduced and oral care, cognitive function, and falls should also be noted. Frailty and pain can affect each other, and pain can promote frailty. Evidence has been published that hormone and protein abnormalities, immune system activity and inflammatory response, and epigenetic mechanisms work in common in the field of frailty and pain. More extensive and high-quality research should be conducted in the future, and the quality of life will be improved if the results are applied to the suppression and treatment of old age and pain.

• The Journal of the Korean life insurance medical association
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• v.26
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• pp.3-12
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• 2007

Frailty는 노인에서 장애와 사망의 주된 원인이 되는데 근육 감소증, 근력 약화, 에너지/화동력/보행속도의 감소, 염증성 싸이토카인의 증가를 특징으로 한다. 비타민 D의 결핍 또는 저항증은 근육기능과 단백질 합성에 대한 효과, 염증성 싸이토카인의 표현 조절, 혈관계에 대한 영향, 중추신경계에 대한 영향을 통해 Fraity syndrome에 대한 원인인자가 될 수 있다. 따라서 만약 비타민 D 결핍이 이 증후군의 중요한 요인이라면 비타민 D 투여는 안전하고도 비용-효과적인 Frailty syndrome에 대한 예방 및 치료 방법이 될 수 있는 것이다.

• Journal of the Korean Data and Information Science Society
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.999-1007
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• 2006

The semiparametric gamma frailty models have been often used for multivariate survival analysis because they give an explicit marginal likelihood. The commonly used estimation procedure is the profile likelihood method based on marginal likelihood, which provides the same parameter estimates as the EM algorithm. In this paper we show in finite samples the standard profile-likelihood method can lead to an underestimation of parameters, particularly for the frailty parameter. To overcome this problem, we propose an adjusted profile-likelihood method. For the illustration a numerical example and a small-sample simulation study are presented.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.54 no.6
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• pp.631-643
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• 2021

Purpose: Frailty is a clinical syndrome in older adults, and adequate nutrition is a modifiable factor in preventing the condition. The current study aims to investigate the association between frailty and dietary intake in the Korean elderly. Methods: This cross-sectional study included data from the 2018 Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey of 1,268 subjects (535 men and 733 women) aged 65 years or older. Frailty was defined as having more than three of the following 5 modified Fried frailty phenotype criteria: unintentional weight loss, exhaustion, walking difficulties, weakness, and low physical activity. Dietary intake was assessed by applying the one-day 24-hour dietary recall. The association between frailty and dietary intakes were analyzed by multiple logistic regression. Results: Totally, 9.7% men and 21.9% women were classified as the frail group. Increasing levels of frailty were proportional to a decreased mean nutrient adequacy ratio in both genders. Moreover, the total food intake was significantly low in the frail elderly. In male subjects, multiple logistic regression analyses after adjusting covariates showed that the odds ratio (OR) of frailty in the highest tertile of the consumption of fruits (OR [95% confidence interval, CI] = 0.34 [0.13-0.93], p-trend = 0.021) were significantly lower than values obtained in the lowest tertile. In females, the highest tertile of fish and shellfish intake showed a significantly lower OR for frailty (OR [95% CI] = 0.55 [0.30-0.99], p-trend = 0.045), as compared with the lowest tertile. Conclusion: The present study indicates that high intake of fruits for men, and fish and shellfish for women, are probably linked with lowering the risk of frailty in the elderly.

• Journal of Home Health Care Nursing
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.5-18
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• 2019

Purpose: Frailty is associated with an increased risk of adverse health outcomes. We aimed to review the relationships between frailty and health outcomes in community-dwelling Korean elderly individuals. Methods: Whittemore and Knafls' framework for conducting integrative reviews was used. PubMed, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, and six Korean databases were searched. For analysis, the study included articles written in English and Korean published between January 1960 and June 2018. Of the total 1,488 studies found in the databases, we analyzed 15 studies that met the quality of the evaluation criteria. Results: The prevalence of frailty in Korean elderly individuals ranged from 6.5% to 11.7% when divided into three levels of frailty. The health outcomes assessed in relation to frailty were divided into five domains: quality of life, physical health, psychosocial health, health behavior, and health care quality. Frailty was negatively associated with all five domains. Conclusions: Our study suggested that nurses should be aware of the limitations in the physical and cognitive functions of frail elderly individuals and provide tailored interventions for Korean elderly individuals. Furthermore, a large-scale study is needed to develop the Korean model of the frailty assessment tool and to verify the conceptual model of this study.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Industry Convergence
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.725-739
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• 2022

This study conducted with 268 female elderly who visited welfare center and senior citizen center in Changwon city to identify the dietary status according to social frailty stage using nutrition quotient for elderly (NQ-E). As a result of the survey, 75.0% of the elderly had no nutrition education. The elderly in social frailty stage was 43.7%, pre-frail was 35.1%, and robust was 21.2%. The scores of NQ-E (61.65), balance (47.78), moderation (86.18), and dietary behavior (55.23) were within the medium-high grade, while diversity (48.37) was within the medium-low grade. Among the balance factor item, there was a significant difference only in the frequency of fruit intake according to social frailty stage (p<0.05). Among the diversity factor item, there were significant differences in vegetable intake (p<0.05) and the rate of eating alone (p<0.001) according to social frailty stage. Among the dietary behavior factor item, there were significant differences in whether to strive for a healthy diet (p<0.05), exercise time and depression (p<0.001), and subjective recognition rate of health (p<0.01) according to social frailty stage. Based on these results, education focusing on various food intake is needed, and continuous support from the government and local governments is needed to connect the social support network of the elderly and support programs to prevent them from going to social frailty stage.

• Journal of Yeungnam Medical Science
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.296-301
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• 2020

The geriatric population is at a greater risk of postoperative complications than young adults. This risk is associated with the physiologic decline seen in this population known as frailty. Unlike fitter patients, frail patients who undergo operative treatment have a greater likelihood of developing postoperative complications and endure prolonged hospital stays. This circumstance is comparable to the urological status. Therefore, tolerable measurement of frailty as a domain of preoperative health status has been suggested to ascertain vulnerability in elderly patients. In this review, we will elaborate on the concept of frailty and examine its importance with respect to surgical complications, focusing on the urological status.

• Journal of Korean Society for Quality Management
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.111-123
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• 1998

We consider the problem of modeling count data where the observation period is determined by the life time of the system under study. We assume random effects or a frailty model to allow for a possible association between the death times and the counts. We assume that, given a random effect or a frailty, the death times follow a Weibull distribution with a hazard rate. For the counts, given a frailty, a Poisson process is assumed with the intensity depending on time. A gamma distribution is assumed for the frailty model. Maximum likelihood estimators of the model parameters are obtained. A model for the time to death and the number of failures system received is constructed and consequences of the model are examined.