• Journal of The Korea Institute of Healthcare Architecture
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.7-19
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• 2013

Purpose: The main objective of this paper is, first, to assess a body of research evidence that articulates the impact of environmental and design factors on safety, quality of life, and health of the elderly who reside in geriatric hospitals or other elderly care facilities and, second, to draw out design implications that can be incorporated into design process and design decisions to help create healing environments for the elderly. Methods: Extensive literature review has been conducted to identify rigorous empirical studies that link the design of elderly care facilities to health-related outcomes and scrutinized peer-reviewed articles published in many different fields including architecture, psychology, nursing to gerontology. Results: The review found a growing body of rigorous studies that identified physical environmental and design factors that improve safety, quality of life, and health of the elderly in geriatric hospitals or other elderly care facilities. Implications: The findings of the review can be translated to design decisions to promote safety, quality of life, and health of the elderly in geriatric hospitals or other elderly care facilities.

• 한국노년학
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.1239-1261
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• 2010

The main purposes of the study were to identify factors affecting health-related quality of life of elderly stroke survivors, and to suggest social work interventions for improving their quality of life. The participants were 328 elderly stroke survivors over 55 years old recruited from 18 long-term care hospitals and 13 nursing care facilities in Chung-Nam Province, Korea. The data was collected through a direct survey method from Dec. 16, 2008 to Jan. 17, 2009. Statistical analysis revealed that the overall health-related quality of life among participants was relatively low, especially in the social relationships domain. As a result of hierarchical multiple regression analysis, depression emerged as the most significant predictor of elderly stroke survivors' health-related quality of life, followed by financial burden in future, activities of daily living, acceptance of disability, comorbidity, and major financial supporter(spouse). Health-related quality of life of elderly stroke survivors in long-term care facilities was affected by a variety of variables from disease-related factors to environmental ones. Particularly psychosocial variables were the most powerful factors to predict HRQOL of elderly stroke survivors. Based on the results, social work implications were discussed in the context of developing clinical strategies to alleviate elderly stroke survivors' health-related quality of life in long-term care facilities. Living with chronic illness and disability is a great challenge to the elderly. Most of all long-term residence in care facilities can cause deterioration of quality of life in old age. From now on, studies on health-related quality of life of elderly with chronic illness and disability should be activated in social work field.

• Physical Therapy Korea
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.45-54
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• 2014

Fall is one of the most intimidating health conditions in elders. Comprehensive assessment is necessary to understand the individual and environmental aspects of the falls such as balancing abilities, depression, and quality of life. The purpose of this study was to compare the balancing ability, depression, and quality of life between elderly fallers and elderly non-fallers. Thirty-two community-dwelling elders (fifteen males and seventeen females between 65 and 83 years old), who have experienced fall on walking during last twelve months, were involved in the elderly fallers group. And twenty-four males and twenty-two females between 65 and 83 years old of community-dwelling elders, who have no experienced fall on walking during last twelve months, were involved in the elderly non-fallers group. Berg balance scale (BBS), timed up and go test (TUG), and functional reach test (FRT), were used to evaluate the ability of the physical balance. 'Beck depression scale in Korean' questionnaire was used to assess the depression. 'Korean version of World Health Organization Quality of Life Assessment Instrument-Bref' questionnaire was used to assess the quality of life. The results were as follows: 1) Balancing abilities measured by the BBS, TUG in the elderly fallers group were meaningfully lower than that of the elderly non-fallers group (p<.05), whereas no significant difference in the FRT was found (p>.05). 2) Depression level in the elderly fallers group was significantly higher than that of the elderly non-fallers group (p<.05). 3) Quality of life in the elderly fallers group was significantly lower than that of the elderly non-fallers group, excluding environment domain (p<.05). Therefore, in order for clinical evaluation of the community-dwelling elders those with reduced balancing ability, it is necessary to evaluate and understand the fall experience, depression, and quality of life.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.18 no.12
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• pp.443-451
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• 2017

The purpose of this research is to examine ways to improve the quality of life of elderly people living alone in urban areas by identifying their stress, social support, and quality of life as well as analyzing the relationships between these factors. In this research, a questionnaire survey was conducted for approximately two weeks including 232 elderly people aged 65 years and above who were using 10 senior welfare centers in the Seoul and Gyeonggi regions. The results of the analysis based on the collected data showed that of the stresses experienced by elderly people living alone in urban areas, the stresses of health, family, and psychological and social stresses had negative effects on social support and quality of life. Also, it was found that the social support of elderly people living alone had positive effects on the quality of life. Additionally, it was found that social support had a mediating effect in the relationship between stress and quality of life of elderly people living alone in urban areas. In other words, social support plays a buffer role in enhancing the quality of life regarding health, family, economy, and psychological and social stresses. This research has significant implications in that it was conducted on elderly people living alone, since elderly people living alone are not only under more stressful circumstances in a vulnerable environment than other seniors but also their quality of life is much lower. The implications of this research are that, from a social point of view, these elderly people living alone should no longer be neglected and that differentiated policy interventions for elderly people living alone is required.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Integrative Medicine
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.141-147
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• 2018

Purpose : Aim of the this study was conducted to determine whether hearing aids are responsible for the quality of life by comparing quality of life between the elderly who are suspected of difficulty in hearing selected by Hearing Handicap Inventory of Elderly (HHIE) without using hearing aids and who are using hearing aids. Methods : For the study, two groups of 33 people were analyzed for independent t-test based on whether they wore Hearing Aids (HA) or not whom wearing hearing aids (hearing aids users) and suspected difficulty in hearing. who are attending the Religious organization Senior Welfare Center in the OO region. Result : The quality of life of hearing aid users is generally observed to be higher than that of non-users in general, and by the section, psychological (p=0.019) and living environment (p=0.032) were appeared statistically signigicant. The elderly showed a significant difference. In the section, "Operation Satisfaction (p=0.038)" in the physical health area, "relationship of reason (p=0.018)" in the social relationship area, "Economic margin (p=0.021)" in the environmental area, "Information accessibility (p=0.020)", In the psychological area, hearing aid was used for "self satisfaction (p=0.033)", "concentration of work (p=0.045)". Conclusion : The use of hearing aids by hearing loss elderly improves the quality of life in the psychological health and living environment section.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.380-387
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• 2016

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the mediating and moderating effects of fall-related efficacy and social support on the relationship between frailty and health-related quality of life among rural community-dwelling elderly. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted with a convenient sampling method, and data of 438 elderly residents living in a rural community was used. The structured questionnaire included items from the Euro Quality of life-5 Dimensions (mobility, self-care, usual activities, pain/discomfort, anxiety/ depression), fall-related efficacy and social support. Results: Analysis of the mediating effect of fall-related efficacy and social support showed that there was significant mediating influence of fall-related efficacy on the relationship between frailty and health-related quality of life. There were no moderating effects of fall-related efficacy and social support. Conclusion: The findings suggest that fall-related efficacy may play a role in reducing the effect of frailty on health-related quality of life and underscore the need to consider ways of enhancing fall-related efficacy in interventions for rural community-dwelling frail elderly.

• Journal of Korean Physical Therapy Science
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.35-40
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• 2012

Background : The purpose of this study is to provide the basic data. Elderly cognitive identify the difference between dynamic balance and quality of life according to the performance level of the clinical exercise therapy and cognitive training. Methods : This study was conducted to collect data from October 17th in 2011 until October 28th, to target seniors who living in Yong-in, Gyeonggi-do. Results : The results of the statistical analysis according to the cognitive ability to function. Higher cognitive functions, the dynamic balance ability was higher, and higher quality of life. Also showed that the dynamic balance ability and a high quality of life to the higher cognitive functions(p<.05). Conclusion : For the maintenance and promotion of cognitive function in the elderly, physical therapy approach seems to improve the quality of life and still plays an important role, as well as the promotion of dynamic balance ability. Therefore, to improve cognitive function is thought to be the appropriate intervention methods and approaches to be developed.

• Journal of Korean Gerontological Nursing
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.193-203
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• 2018

Purpose: This study was done to develop a predictive model for quality of life of elderly residents in long-term care facilities (LTCF). The study was based on Brofenbrenner's ecological system theory and a literature review. Methods: Data were collected using a convenience sample of 205 elderly residents in 2 nursing homes located in D city and 1 nursing home located in K province. The exogenous variables were individual factors, family support, and facility environmental factors. The endogenous variables were self-esteem, accommodation adaptation and quality of life of elderly residents in LTCF. Collected data were analyzed through structural equation modeling using AMOS 20.0. Results: Eleven of the twelve hypotheses were supported, but the hypothesis that facility environment factors effect self-esteem was not supported. Quality of life of elderly residents in LTCF was explained first by facility environmental factors, followed by self-esteem, individual factors, accommodation adaptation, and family support with an explanatory power of 83.0%. Conclusion: To improve the quality of life of elderly residents in LTCF, the service and environment preparation provided by facilities is important, and it is necessary to provide emotional counseling to improve the self-esteem of these elders.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Integrative Medicine
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.153-163
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• 2022

Purpose : The purpose of this study was to investigate the differences between uncertainty of chronic diseases and quality of life with regard to elderly people. Methods : The participants of this study were 350 elderly people, aged over 65 years. The collected data were analyzed using the SPSS Window program and the general characteristics of the participants and sub-domains of quality of life were analyzed by several frequency analyses and descriptive statistics such as mean, standard deviation, skewness, and kurtosis. Further, the differences between the sub-domains of uncertainty and sub-domains of quality of life were analyzed through independent t-test and one-way ANOVA. In order to reach conclusive results, post-test was analyzed by the Scheffe test. In addition, Pearson's correlation analysis was performed to determine the correlation between the target categories. A significance level of 𝛼=.05 was used to verify statistical significance. Results : As a result of examining "uncertainty" with respect to general characteristics, such as older age, low educational background, and chronic diseases, it was observed that the more intense these factors became, the more the level of uncertainty increased. In addition, it was also noted that except "accompanying diseases" in social domain, the participants enjoyed a high level of quality of life. The correlation was noted between domains of complexity and sociality (p<.01), domains of inconsistency and sociality (p<.01), domains of complexity and living environment (p<.01), domains of inconsistency and living environment (p<.01), and total score of uncertainty and total quality of life (p<.01). Conclusion : In this study, differences were found between "uncertainty" and "quality of life" of elderly people; the correlation between the sub-domains based on general traits was found to be negative (-). This suggests that objective evidence can be presented for the prevention of diseases by using mental health programs for the elderly in future.

• Journal of Korean Academic Society of Home Health Care Nursing
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• v.4
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• pp.76-85
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• 1997

In modern society, the human average life span has been prolonged due to medical benefits and changes in society, which results in the rapid and world -wide increase in the population of elderly. Consequently, the field of nursing science, as well as the field of many other discipline, has shown increasing interests in issues on the elderly. In addition, to improve the quality of life for elderiy people a great deal of effort has been made. The purpose of our study is to analyze the correlation between family support and quality of life in order to develop basic data for nursing interventions to maintain life satisfaction of the elderly. The sample consists of 108 subjects residing at home whose ages are over 65 years old. The data has been collected, from November 11, 1996 to November 23, 1996, through interviewing the elderly using a questionnarie. For the family supoort we used two: 1) the 5 - point Likert scale questionnarie developed by Gallo and Warren (Family support I) and 2) the 5-point Likert scale developed by H. S. Kang(Family support II), and for the quality of life we used the 3 - point likert scale questionnarie developed by Choi, Young Hee. For data analysis we used percentages, means, Pearson Correlation Coefficient and ANOVA. The results of our study are as follows: 1. For perceived family support I & II, the minimum score is 12 & 19, the maximum score is 32 & 46, the mean score is 24.49 & 34.90, respectively. 2. For Quality of life, the minimum score is 13, the maximum score is 39, the mean score is 28.61. 3. there is a very strong correlation between the perceived family support of the subjects and Quality of life (for I r=0.35047, p<.001 and for II r= 0.60558, p<.001). 4. The relationship between the general characteristics of the elderly and our two variables. family support and Quality of life, is as follows: 1) According to age(for II F=5.32, p<.01), the amount of monthly pocket money(for II F= 3.52, p<.05), inmate(for I F=2.93, p<.05, for II F=2.84, p<.05), economics(for I F=8.99, p<.01. for II F=7.51. p<.01), supporter(for I F=4.01. p<.01. for II F=3.43, p<.01), there is a statistically significant difference in family support. 2) According to the amount of monthly pocket money(F=6.69, p<.01), inmate(F=2.24, p<.05), economics(F=15.38, p<.01), there is a statistically significant difference in Quality of life. In conclusion, it can be said that the family support is an important variable to the Quality of the elderly life.