• 한국노년학
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.243-259
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• 2018

The purpose of this study is to investigate the moderating effect of home-based welfare facilities for older adults on the associations between the activities of daily living (ADL) / instrumental activities of daily living (IADL) and the depressive symptoms among Koreans in later life. Multilevel analysis was conducted with Korean Longitudinal Study of Aging 5th data and the public report about welfare facilities from Ministry of Health and Welfare in Korea. Samples were 4,139 older adults over 65 years old. The dependent variable was depressive symptoms, and individual level independent variables were ADL and IADL. The ratio of home-based welfare facilities out of 10,000 older adults in each city and province was the moderator. As a result, the effects of ADL on depressive symptoms vary according to the proportion of elderly welfare facilities out of the old population in the community. In specific, the older adults who live in the place where the elderly welfare facility rate was higher were less affected by ADL. Also, the more IADL people had, the more depressive symptoms they had. However, the interaction effect between IADL and the proportion of home-based welfare facilities was not significant. It suggests that delivering welfare services helping ADL through the home-based welfare facilities may be useful for decreasing depressive symptoms. Moreover, considering the proportion of facilities and older population will be helpful to make the welfare facilities efficiently work.

• Journal of the Korean housing association
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.35-43
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• 2014

Korea is the most rapidly aging country in the OECD countries, becoming 'an aging society' in 2010, when over 12% of the population had reached the age 65 and beyond. Along with the population aging, problems of the elderly have become a social issue. Also, the elderly population in most farming villages is increasing due to the cityward concentration of younger generation and the rapid urbanization centered around the capital area. Yet no definite success in revitalization of these villages has been reported despite the acknowledgement of the problems arising from such phenomena. Therefore, by examining "marginal villages" (communities whose joint social activities are difficult to maintain as over 50% of the population is 65 years or older) in Japan, which at this point has entered "the ultra-aged society" before Korea, this study intends to compare and analyze the countermeasure plans for the population decrease in these villages. The case study has been done with the focus on the literary references published in Japan such as papers, various reports, statistics, newspapers, and journals.

• Korea journal of population studies
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.1-28
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• 2012

In this study, labor force projections are made in order to examine the process and magnitude of labor shortage caused by population ageing in Korea. Starting from theoretical review and analysis of population projection data, this study presents that serious transitions of labor market are expected to begin between 2020 and 2030. This study shows even in case of encouraging higher labor participation, labor shortage cannot be offset but only delay and alleviate effects of population ageing. Finally, this study points out some important implications of labor policy including sensitive social and political issues which should be considered.

• Journal of Korean Society of Rural Planning
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.15-24
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• 2023

The sense of crisis regarding regional extinction due to low birth rates and an aging population is expanding. Generally, the local extinction index is used to analyze local extinction. However, it is challenging to diagnose the actual situation of village extinction risk in rural areas, even though the regional extinction index can be analyzed in units such as Si-Gun-Gu and Eup-Myeon-Dong. This difficulty arises because the regional extinction index solely relies on natural population growth indicators (elderly population and female population aged 20-39). Therefore, the purpose of this study is to develop a village extinction index that can identify the disappearance of rural villages. Additionally, the aim is to apply the developed indicators to the village (administrative ri) spatial unit. The existing regional extinction index used only mortality-related indicators as factors for natural population decline and fertility-related indicators as factors for natural population growth. However, the developed village extinction index included not only the factors of natural population change but also incorporated social population growth factors and factors related to the pace of village extinction. This is the key difference between the developed village extinction index and the existing regional extinction index. In this study, the indicators of "total population," "number of young women aged 20-44," "number of elderly population aged 70 or older," and "number of incoming population" were selected to develop a village extinction index. The village extinction index was developed by incorporating both natural population growth indicators and social population growth indicators. The developed village extinction index was applied to administrative villages. This research is expected to provide a more accurate understanding of the current state of rural villages facing extinction.

• 한국노년학
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.143-168
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• 2018

While there were posed arguments that social treatment to older persons should be based on the perspective of human rights turning into the 21st century, policy efforts to protect and promote the rights of older persons in international community have slowly proceeded. In this situation existing studies on the rights of older persons in the international perspective have been fragmented in their contents, lacking systematic overview of policy efforts to strengthen the rights of older persons in international community. This study aims to be the one that could be such a systematic study to overview international policy efforts to strengthen the rights of older persons through analyzing the background of posing the problem of the rights of older persons, problems in existing international norms for human rights applicable to older persons, and measures to strengthen the rights of older persons and controversial issues. Existing international norms on human rights that are Universal Declaration of Human Rights, international conventions on the rights in terms of area of rights and target population, and policy recommendations, are narrow in the scope of rights to be protected, and also lack legal force in their implementation. The international community has generally reached a consensus on strengthening the rights of older persons. However, there have been two different positions: strengthening existing norms on human rights versus creating a new convention on the rights of older persons. And also there have appeared many controversial points in both positions. Conclusively this study, arguing the creation of a new convention, suggests implications for Korean society and research studies.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.404-414
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• 2021

This study was to investigate the differences of functional health status and medical service experience and needs between general and vulnerable older people in community. This study is a cross-sectional descriptive research. The data obtained through direct visit surveys from November to December 2016. The target population of the study was older people over 65 years old, the final study subjects were 444 older people residing in one district of Seoul. The chi-square test was conducted to confirm the difference in their functional health areas and medical service experiences, and the necessity of medical service utilization in accordance to the social class. In the experience of abnormality in functional health, the vulnerable older people had higher experience in cognitive function, nutrition, hydration, pain, and falling than the general older people. The rate of experience of using medical service to solve the cognitive function problem for general older people was 31.9%, higher than that of the vulnerable older people. In contrast, the medical service utilization needs of the vulnerable older people in the pain management category was significantly higher than that of the general older people. In setting policy of public medical service programs for general and vulnerable older people in community may be differentially developed based on this study. In order to improve the medical accessibility of the vulnerable older people, public medical institutions should be actively supported to overcome obstacles to medical use due to economic barriers.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.287-296
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• 2010

The purpose of this research is to analyze priority of the elderly user interface (UI) evaluation criteria based on user's lifestyle. Since the elderly population will occupy over 20% of the all Korean population in the near future, we need to know older users' needs and information because elderly users will be main customers in the super-aged society. This paper investigated the definition of elderly users and characteristics demographically, socio-economically, and physically/cognitively. A total of 238 questionnaires from older users were analyzed based on a segmentation table for the elderly developed by the previous study. According to factor analysis and cluster analysis, 6 types of lifestyle and 4 groups of the elderly users were classified, respectively. The priority of UI evaluation criteria for large electronic home appliances and mobile products was analyzed by analyses of variance (ANOVAs). The results indicated that the priority of (physical, emotional, and cognitive) UI criteria was significantly different among elderly users' lifestyles for both home appliances and mobile products. Consequently, the results of this study may help the company develop some competitive silver products and give higher satisfaction to the elderly users by suggesting different priority of UI evaluation criteria according to the target elderly group. The results may also contribute to revitalize national economy by significantly increasing senior market shares.

• Journal of the Korean BIBLIA Society for library and Information Science
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.213-233
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• 2016

As elderly population increases their use of public libraries also increases, and thus, public library services for older people need to be more developed. The information needs of older population are mostly related to the everyday life, such as health, medical care, social welfare, the main services of public library community information services or information and referral services. Through a literature review, foreign case studies, homepage surveys, site surveys, this study explores types and content of community information for elderly people, and suggests, ways of enhancing community information services for elderly people.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.53 no.5
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• pp.332-341
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• 2020

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to investigate the association between the Basic Old-Age Pension (BOP), which is a non-contributory pension, and depression in BOP beneficiaries in Korea. Methods: We used the second and third waves (2007-2008) of the Korea Welfare Panel Study to identify the effect of the BOP on mental health in the year of its introduction. The Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression Scale, applied in a Korean context, was used to evaluate mental health. To analyze the effect of the BOP, a difference-in-difference approach was used in analyses of all subjects and subgroups. Results: For this study population of 760 adults, the BOP did not have a statistically significant relationship with depression in its beneficiaries. After controlling for type of household, the BOP was still not associated with lower reporting of depression, either in single-beneficiary or double-beneficiary households, in the year of the benefit. Conclusions: The BOP policy had no significant relationship with the level of depression among recipients. However, this should not be interpreted as implying that income subsidy programs for older adults, such as the BOP, do not affect mental health, considering the importance of economic hardship in this population and the program's socioeconomic effects.

• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.45-56
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• 2014

Objectives: This study aimed to examine how the relationship between socioeconomic factors at the macro level and suicide mortality rate of Korea was different from that of other OECD countries. Methods: We created OECD panel data of 29 OECD countries from 1985 to 2006 and analyzed the relationship between socioeconomic factors and suicide mortality rate for separate age and sex groups using a fixed-effect model. Economic factors included per capita GDP, per capita GDP growth rate, unemployment rate, and women's economic participation rate. Social factors included birth rate, alcohol consumption, and the percentage of population 65 and older. Results: Unemployment rate had a positive relationship with suicide in other countries but it had a negative relationship in some groups of Korea. Women's economic participation rate was both positively and negatively related with suicide in Korea but it did not relate to suicide in others. The negative relationship of birth rate and the positive relationship of alcohol consumption with suicide were evident in Korea, which were not found in other countries. The percentage of population 65 and older was negatively correlated in some female groups in Korea, while no significant relationship was found in other countries. Conclusions: Korea was substantially different from other OECD countries in the relationship between socioeconomic factors and suicide mortality rate.