• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.58-67
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• 2007

For the rapidly growing elderly population, the achievement and maintenance of good nutritional status is critical to health, functioning and quality of life. Elderly women living alone have been identified as a group associated with poor nutrition. The purpose of this study was to assess dietary intakes of elderly women living alone as compared to those of elderly women living with family in a rural area and to examine seasonal variation. The subjects are 49 elderly women living alone and 41 elderly women living with family who reside in Goryeong-gun, Gyeongbuk, and their food intakes were assessed once each time in summer 2005, winter 2005-2006, and spring 2006. The average ages were 74.7 years for living alone and 72.8 years for living with family. Education level was not different between the two groups. Height, weight, body mass index, systolic and diastolic blood pressures, and fasting blood glucose were not significantly different between the two groups. Average intakes of major nutrients, nutrient adequacy ratio, mean adequacy ratio and index of nutritional quality were lower in the elderly women living alone compared with the elderly women living with family in summer, but the differences in intakes of most nutrients became insignificant both in winter and in spring. High carbohydrate and low fat diet was prevalent and intakes of carbohydrate and fat in summer deviated from macronutrient acceptable distribution ranges. Percentages of the subjects who consumed energy less than 75% of the estimated energy requirement and nutrients less than the estimated average requirement were higher than those reported by the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. In summer, the percentage of the subjects who consumed energy less than both 75% of the estimated energy requirement and 4 nutrients less than estimated average requirements was 58.5% of the elderly women living alone, which was higher than 26.5% of the elderly women living with family and that of National Nutrition Survey. Therefore, nutrition policies including nutrition education and support are necessary to improve nutritional status of elderly, especially elderly women living alone and should reflect regional and seasonal characteristics.

• Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.577-589
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• 2019

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of general and oral health on quality of life in the elderly living alone and with family. Methods: We analyzed data from the $6^{th}$ Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Distribution of the elderly living alone and with family based on the general characteristics and general and oral health was analyzed using complex-sample chi-square tests. Multiple logistic regression was used to analyze the factors affecting quality of life by calculating the 95% confidence intervals. Results: In the elderly living alone, the quality of life significantly correlated with restriction of activity, perceived general and oral health status, perceived stress, and speech difficulties. Further, in the elderly living with family, lower quality of life significantly correlated with restriction of activity, perceived health status, walking days per week, life time smoking history, Community Periodontal Index, and chewing and speech difficulties. Conclusions: The elderly are concerned with self-maintenance of general and oral health. Therefore, systematic policies related to health services need to be developed and operated at the national level. It is especially necessary to take social interest in the elderly living alone and a more continuous and professional approach in their health care.

• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.41-53
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• 2013

Objectives: As the size of elderly population living alone grows, socioeconomic diversity has also increased. This study examined if social risk factors of poor self-rated health were distinguishable between the low income elderly and their non-low income counterparts both living alone. Methods: The '2006 Elderly Health Interview Survey' conducted by D-gu in Seoul was utilized. We divided the elderly living alone into two groups depending on their economic status: low income and non-low income. Employing logistic regression, we analyzed the associations of poor self-rated health with socio-demographic factors, health-related factors, social support, the relations with children, social activities, welfare service use, and the perception of neighborhood safety. Results: Proportion of rating one's own health being poor was different between two populations. Social support was important for the self-rated health of the non-low income elderly, while welfare service use, the perception of neighborhood safety, and the relations with children were noticeable for the low income elderly. Conclusions: To better understand the health need of elderly population living alone, their heterogeneity in socioeconomic characteristics should be taken into account.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.145-154
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• 2017

Objectives: This study used data of urban and rural elderly living alone to compare the general characteristics of the elderly who have had suicidal ideation, and to investigate the suicidal ideation of urban-rural elderly with varying degrees of emotional support status, health status, and health behavior. Methods and materials: The research participants included 2,750 elderly aged 65 or above, of which 1,487 were from dong unit and 1,263 were from eup myeon units according to the raw data of 2011 Survey on Elderly Status. All collected data were analyzed using cross tabulation of SPSSWIN(ver 21.0) program and multivariate logistic regression. Results: The results were as follows. First, the factors that influenced the suicidal ideation of urban and rural elderly living alone included degree of depression, experience of abuse, and nutritional management status. Second, the suicidal ideation of urban elderly living alone was affected by the emotional support of their children who live apart and their grandchildren. Third, the suicidal ideation of rural elderly living alone was affected by the emotional support of their kin (including siblings).

• Journal of the Korean Society of Industry Convergence
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.709-725
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• 2024

This study utilized the raw data from the Community Health Survey (2023) to compare differences in body function, activity, participation, environment, personal factors, and suicidal ideations between elderly individuals aged 65 and older living alone and those living with families in Korea. The study subjects consisted of 80,618 elderly individuals aged 65 and older. Cross-tabulation analysis χ²-test), independent sample t-test, and logistic regression analysis were conducted. The results indicated that for both elderly individuals living alone and those living with families, age(p<.001), smoking(p<.001), stress(p<.001), depression experience(p<.001), and falls experiences(p<.001) were risk factors that increased suicidal ideations. Conversely, educational level(p<.05), income level(p<.001), subjective health status(p<.001), social participation(p<.001), economic activity(p<.001), community environment(p<.001), and social relationships were protective factors that reduced suicidal ideations. These findings demonstrate that demographic characteristics and individual health status significantly influence suicidal ideation in the elderly, while social factors contribute to a decrease in suicidal ideation. Furthermore, considering the differences found between elderly individuals living alone and those living with families regarding hypertension and gender, differentiated interventions for suicide prevention are necessary.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.207-219
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• 2014

The purpose of this study was to examine the characteristics of suicide attempts and non-attempts of the elderly living alone and the subjects in this study were 690 elderly persons living alone in Seoul and Gyeonggi Province. For data analysis, this study used descriptive analysis, mean comparison correlation analysis, and binominal logistic regression analysis using PASW 20.0. To explain the suicide attempts of elderly persons who live alone, variables such as sex, age education level, monthly household income, religion, subjective economic status, subjective health status, ADL/IADL, depression, hopelessness, social support, and stress were used. The findings of the study were as follows: First, 9.2 percent(64) of the elderly living alone had attempted suicide and 90.8 percent(626) had never attempted suicide. Second, monthly household income, hopelessness, and social support were identified as the factors that affected their suicide attempts. In other words, the elderly living alone who had lower monthly household income, less social support, and greater feelings of hoprlessness had made more suicide attempts. As it is a cross-sectional research using data from non-probability sampling, this has a limitation in generality sampling, this has a limitation in generalizing the study results. To overcome this limitation, longitudinal research using data from probability sampling is necessary.

• The Journal of Industrial Distribution & Business
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.41-48
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• 2020

Purpose: This study is to examine the intention of the elderly who live alone in the customized AI speaker for the elderly living alone to improve the quality of life service for the elderly living alone in the smart city environment. Based on the quality of life model of the elderly, this study is applied to the technology acceptance model to investigate the relationship between perceived usefulness and ease of use on the sustained use intention. Research design, data and methodology: Residents in Suwon, Gyeonggi-do, selected as candidate local governments for the Smart City Challenge Project of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport in June 2019 to measure the perceived technology acceptance of potential users for the AI technology for the elderly living alone as part of the smart city technology. In order to evaluate the intention of using AI speaker, which is the target system of this study, a video of a chatbot using experience of elderly people living alone was produced. Results: First of all, in order for the elderly living alone to have an attitude to use AI-based speakers, there should be a perceived usefulness of the quality of life of the elderly. However, ease of use did not show any significant causal relationship to attitude toward use. In addition, the attitude toward use weakly influenced the intention to use. In other words, elderly people living alone were not likely to have a significant effect on their attitude toward use. However, feeling that AI speakers are easy to use will help to improve the quality of life, which in turn led to the attitude toward using AI speakers, which could lead to indirect effects. Finally, the perceived usefulness of quality of life was found to have a weak effect on direct use intentions. Conclusions: This study conducted a study on the technology acceptance of service environment to improve the quality of life for the specific user group who live alone in the smart seat environment. In this study, we examined the effects of AI speaker on the elderly living alone to improve the quality of life for the elderly living alone.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.8 no.5
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• pp.726-735
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• 2003

In this study, anthropometric and biochemical indicators and related factors for community dwelling elderly living alone (ELA). as well as for elderly not living alone (ENLA) were explored. The subjects were 140 elderly females (70 living alone, 70 not living alone) residing in Bucheon. Anthropometric measurements revealed significant differences between the two groups (ELA/ENLA) for height, weight, BMI, triceps skinfold thickness, suprailiac skinfold thickness, subscapular skinfold thickness, and body fat percentage. The ELA showed significantly lower data for most of the anthropometric indices, except PIBW. Biochemical indicators of iron status (hemoglobin, serum iron, transferrin saturation) were significantly lower for the ELA, whereas the total serum cholesterol, LDL-C, LDL-C/HDL-C, for the ELA were significantly higher. The prevalence of hypercholesterolemia (240 mg%) was 30%. The latter three are not in accordance with general malnutrition among the ELA. The hemoglobin of the ELA was positively correlated with energy, fat, iron and cholesterol intake, but negatively correlated with height. The serum cholesterol of the ELA was Positively associated with most of their nutrient intake.

• Korean Journal of Culture and Social Issue
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.115-137
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• 2003

This study aims to investigate the related variables of self-esteem and depression among the Korean elderly people living alone and examine the relationships or interactions between those variables. Participants were 676 elderly men and women who were at least 65 years of age(M=76.17, sd=7.60) and lived in Seoul, Korea. Three hundred seventy eight participants of this study were living alone. Participants completed questionnaires and psychological tests including: Rosenberg's Self-Esteem Scale, Zung's Self-Rating Depression Scale, The Index of Activities of Daily Living(IADL), Social Support Index(SSI), and Life Satisfaction in the Elderly Scale(LSES). Main statistical designs were 2(gender)×2(residential types), Pearson-product moment and regression analysis. Results indicated that the elderly living alone recognized their health poorer, have lower economic status, and received less social supports than the elderly lived with others. The elderly men who had children were more likely to lived alone. And the elderly men living alone received less social supports than the elderly women living alone, and significant gender difference was found in the reason of living alone. The elderly men living alone had lower self-esteem than the elderly women living alone, while the elderly living alone showed more depressive symptoms than the elderly living with others. There were 2-way interactions both in self-esteem and depression by gender and residential types. There was highly significant gender difference in self-esteem only for the elderly living alone, and it was found that there was no significant difference in depression between elderly men living alone and women living with others. Regression analysis revealed that physical function and self-reported health are predictors of self-esteem, and physical function, self-reported health, and social support are predictors of depression for the Korean elderly living alone. These findings reiterate the role of physical function, social support, health in self-esteem and depession among the elderly and suggest the gender role for quality of life among the Korean elderly living alone.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.30 no.9
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• pp.1095-1101
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• 1997

The present paper resents information on the dietary intake and biochemical status of elderly who are living in different types of residence. On hundred and sixty five women(age 65-80 years old) were divided into three groups ; those who are living alone (LA) , living with family (LF) , and living in institutions (LI) within the same general community. Nutrient intake, body fat content, and biochemical measurements in blood and urine were examined statistically and potential environment-related influence are discussed. Elderly women living alone had significantly lower intake of nutrients than elderly women were not living alone LF group showed significantly higher fat consumption than LA and LI groups. Body fat content, plasma albumin and calcium levels in elderly women who lived with other people were significantly higher than those in elderly women living alone, but fat weights and lean body mass between groups were not different. None of the plasma lipid fractions were significantly different among the three groups except LDL-cholesterol (LDL-C) concentration. In the LI group, LDL-C was lower than that of LF and LA groups. From the above results, serious nutritional deficiency has been shown in elderly women that live alone. Therefore, nutritional education and social help should be carried out to improve these situations for elderly people.