• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.56 no.2
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• pp.237-259
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• 2004

The public assistance scheme plays more important role in income maintenance for poor elders than the public pension does due to insufficient coverage of the public pension resulted from late introduction of it in Korea. However, only limited numbers of poor elders are financially protected by the public assistance contrary to the general perception that the elderly population most benefits from public aids. Based on data set of 2000 from the Korean Labor and Income Panel Study, this study analysed the size, composition and characteristics of poor elders excluded from the public assistance, and determinants of the elderly's participation in it. Findings of the study can be summarized as follows: (1) More than half of poor elders are excluded from the public assistance although their economic status is similar with that of recipients, which may cause income reversal between recipients and non-recipients. (2) It was identified that non-recipient poor elders especially those with same income level of recipients of the National Livelihood Guarantees(NLG) are actually in desperate need of public aids considering their serious financial conditions. (3) Participation in public assistance among the elderly is more affected by socio-demographic factors that reflect family conditions than by economic factors, which is mostly caused by the strict eligibility criteria of the public assistance that reinforces family duty of financial support for elderly relatives in Korea. Policy implications for more effective income security for poor elders include revising inappropriate eligibility criteria of the NLG concerning family obligations, expanding the coverage of the old age allowance for poor elders to near-poor elders, and providing work opportunities to non-recipient poor elders to supplement their income deficit.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Fundamentals of Nursing
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.81-90
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• 2005

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify family resiliency, ADL in elders with dementia, and symptom for families with an elder with dementia. Method: The participants were 102 people who were caregivers to elders with dementia and who visited the out-patient department at S. hospital for follow up care. Data were collected from August to October 2003 using a questionnaire. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and t-test aided by the SPSS/PC. Result: Family resiliency for the whole sample was within normal limits but when the sample was quarter-divided by good and poor family resiliency, based on established cut-off scores, there were differences for some characteristics according to good/poor family resiliency. These differences were for perceived health state of caregivers (t=-2.78, p=.008), economic state of family (t=-3.34, p=.002), and ADL (t=-2.56, p=.014). Conclusion: Future research should focus on the way in which family resiliency can be enhanced and on the effects of interventions for those caregivers who report poor family resiliency.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Fundamentals of Nursing
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.481-489
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• 2009

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify health promoting lifestyle patterns (HPLP) and health perception (HP), and related factors, in elderly people using welfare service centers. Methods: Three hundred elders were interviewed using a structured questionnaire through convenience sampling at two welfare centers. Data were analyzed using the SPSS WIN 12.0 program. Results: Most of the elders had some kind of diseases, such as hypertension, diabetes, or osteoarthritis. The mean HPLP score was 2.53, and significant differences were found according to the elders' general characteristics. The sub-domain nutrition had the highest mean score, and stress management and exercise, the lowest. The mean HP score was 3.38, and significant differences were found according to education level and number of underlying diseases. HPLP showed a correlation with HP. Conclusion: The results indicate that elders have poor practices in stress management and exercise reflecting need for community based stress management programs for welfare service centers elderly clients.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Fundamentals of Nursing
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.271-286
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• 2000

This study is designed to investigate what elders think about the meaning of aging. We have used Q-methods to identify meaning of aging from elders, and developed self-referenced surveys to analyze characteristics In this study, we used a non-structured method to select Q sampling. From 183 Q populations, we selected 36 Q sampling. A total of 32 persons sixty-years or older were randomly selected for P samples, When the Q-sorting was complete, we interviewed the participants at both end of the extremes(agree or disagree), and documented their responses. We used PC QUANL to process the data and used principal component analysis for Q factor analysis. There were five subjective types for the meaning of aging by elders. Of the 32 P-samples of elders, 11 were identified as Type 1, 7 as Type 2, 2 as Type 3, 8 as Type 4, and 4 as Type 5. Type 1 : 'Matured elders' Elders wished the well being of their children, thought older persons should maintain good health, worried about becoming senile, and dependent God believing in life after death. Type 2 : 'Assertive-Rights' Elders categorized as Assertive-Rights insisted on their rights to life as a person. Type 2 elders characterized themselves as people who should keep themselves healthy, become weak and lack sexual desires, act selfish like a child, need to be protected, and be financially independent. Type 3 : 'Passive-Dependents' Elders characterize themselves as those who pray for their children's well being, worry about the children even after their death. and becoming senile. Type 4 : 'Hopeless' The 'Hopeless' type of elders characterized aging as a time to pray for their children, insignificant beings, thoughts were selfish and child-like, poor, worried about going senile, regret their life overall, and preferred to die than to live as an old person. Type 5 : 'Attached-Present' The 'Attached-Present' type of elders thought elderly characterized themselves as acting selfish and child-like, wiser, anxious, regret their life, stand aloof of greed and worldly things, being a model for the society, and deserving to be treated with filial respect. Thus far, Korean elders seemed to have a positive and negative meaning of aging due to the current changes in the society, value system, and family structures. The above five subjective meanings of aging confirm that we need to approach and nurse the elderly differently. Years of aging are a part of and a natural process of life with various physical, psychological, and sociological changes. Nurses need to assist elderly to find the positive meaning of their life by providing appropriate physical, psychological, and social support at an earlier stage in nursing. Based on this study, we could derive the following two implication from the perspectives of science of nursing to care for elders. 1) Based on the studies investigating the type of meaning of aging, we could develop tools to assist in nursing intervention programs for elderly. 2) Based on research on the meaning of aging for different developmental stages of life, we could develop a model for roles for different family members in nursing and caring for the elders.

• Journal of Korean Public Health Nursing
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.13-29
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• 2002

The purpose of this study was to describe about elders with dementia, their families, and their living environment by visiting the households where demented elders resided. The findings will be used as a basis to develop future individualized adjustment programs for demented elders and their families living in communities. The study participants were 64 demented elders and their families who were registered to a dementia counseling center at Nam-Gu community health center located in Inchon, Korea. Data were collected for two months, from May to June 2001. The length of data collection for each home visit ranged from 1.5 to 2.5 hours. Conclusion are as follows based on these study findings: Those demented elders had more than one chronic health problem in addition to their pre-existing dementia condition. Two thirds of the demented elders were not receiving any specific treatment for dementia. They showed a moderate level of independence in basic ADL, but were mostly residing at home because of lack of ability to perform more delicate and complicate routine daily activities by themselves. In addition, the primary caregivers were not well adjusted to the care-giving activities for their demented family members due to the lack of knowledge and information about dementia. The caregivers were mostly women including daughters-in-law, woman spouses and daughters, over a half of whom perceived their physical and mental health status as poor. Their image toward the demented elders was considerably negative. while their level of knowledge on dementia was moderate. The burden for the care-giving was high, whereas their coping method was passive. As the difference in image toward elderly before and after the onset of dementia in their family member increases, the caregiver burden also increased. The main resource of social support for the caregivers was their children. The caregivers showed high level of needs for knowledge and information on dementia, and day care service was the most preferred type of service by the caregivers. There was lack of safety in the living environments for the demented elders and their families, and in the surrounding environments to prevent dementia-related symptoms. Considering that home-based family care-giving is the most culturally appropriate model of providing care for the demented elders in Korea, we need to develop and apply an individualized adjustment program for the demented elders and their families.

• The Korean Journal of Food And Nutrition
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.467-475
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• 2007

The nutritional status and chronic disease occurrence of the elderly living in local areas is affected by certain factors, including low energy intakes, low food diversity, poor nutritional quality and living alone. Moreover, elderly people who live alone may have low incomes and be socially isolated. Thus, we have provided them adjustable and balanced menus using standard recipes. In this study, we investigated aspects of nutritional status and living conditions in the elderly status, in relation to food, activities of daily living(ADL), nutrition risk index, average intake of calories and nutrients, the mini dietary assessment index score, depression score, menu satisfaction, menu demand, satisfaction with menu offerings. The result indicated significant nutritional improvements by providing menus to the elders and suggest that by providing adjustable and balanced menus using standard recipes, the nutritional status of isolated elders can be changed and improved.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.40 no.5
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• pp.747-755
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• 2010

Purpose: This study was conducted to investigate the degree of dry mouth and oral health-related quality of life and to identify factors contributing to oral health-related quality of life for community-dwelling elders. Methods: A descriptive correlational study design was used. Participants were 156 older adults from two senior welfare centers. Data were collected on February 21, 22 and 29, 30, 2009 using structured questionnaires. Enter type multiple regression analysis was used to identify factors influencing oral health-related quality of life according to general and oral health characteristics. Results: There were significant differences in oral health-related quality of life according to living arrangement, insurance, smoking, number of natural teeth, and denture type. The oral health-related quality of life had significant correlations with the number of chronic disease, number of medications, and dry mouth. Factors influencing oral health-related quality of life for community-dwelling older adults were dry mouth, number of chronic disease, and medical aid, which explained about 47.9% of total variance. Conclusion: These results indicate that in order to promote oral health-related quality of life for older adults, prevention or management of chronic diseases as well as oral health and dry mouth are needed for this population, and especially economically poor elders.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.59 no.1
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• pp.5-25
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• 2007

The purpose of this study is to explore factors influencing the poverty of the elderly in Korea. In spite the fact that poverty of the elderly is more serious than any other demographic group, this important issue is rarely studied. Using the 7-year accumulated data from the KLIPS(Korean Labor and Income Study), I combined the work history of the elders, their demographic characteristics and residence to estimate pooled data analysis of the elderly after reaching age 55 and who are also only living by themselves(only the elders). The results of this study are as followed: first of all, age, education, marital status, wealth, residence and work history are shown to be significant predictors for the poverty of elderly. Second, the results show that factors influencing the poverty is different depending on the elder's (demographic) characteristics. For example, age and marital status is a more important predictor in female than in male, and wealth and health status is a more important predictor in elders who do not have a spouse than in elders who do. Such results suggest that the policy of the poverty of the elderly which is only focused on elder's characteristic is limited. Therefore we can suggest that a policy which workable people can earn decent income and saving wealth for their elderly in job is needed. Especially, policies on the 'Working Poor' and reconstruct the current public pension system is very much needed.

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

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.43 no.9
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• pp.1431-1438
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• 2014

This study assessed the risk and prevalence of anorexia as well as associated factors among home-dwelling elderly adults. The subjects were 419 elderly men (116) and women (303) aged 65 years and older ($76{\pm}5.6yr$) living in Korea. Data were collected by personal interviews using questionnaires. The collected data were analyzed by descriptive statistics and Pearson's correlation. The prevalence of anorexia was 35.1% among participants. Male elders (74.1%) had higher proportions of anorexia than female elders (20.1%) (P<0.001). Significant differences in the appetite were observed according to type of disease, depression, and activities of daily living (ADL) index. In the poor appetite group, central nervous system diseases were the primary illness in male elders (P<0.01), whereas endocrine diseases were the primary illness in female elders (P<0.01). Elders with good appetites had less symptoms of depression (P<0.001) and greater independence in ADL (P<0.001). These results explored the high prevalence of anorexia in geriatric populations in Korea and its impact on elderly nutritional status and health. Further research should be performed to identify the causes of anorexia and establish an intervention protocol allowing the early diagnosis of anorexia.