• The Korean Journal of Food And Nutrition
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.215-222
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• 2009

The principal objective of this study was to assess the demands and satisfactions of silver welfare professionals for elderly individuals residing in the Northern Gyeonggi-do area. To this end, a survey was conducted to investigate elderly individuals and employees related with them in terms of their recognition, interest, and involvement in a labor training program. The sources of health information the subjects received included mass media(50%) and health professionals(41%), and they tended to trust the information they received from health professionals(64%) and the mass media(26%). In the case of health professionals working at silver care facilities, the sources of health information to which they had access were: mass media (51%), health professionals(20%), internet(14%), reliable health professionals(56%), mass media(22%), and books related to health(18%). Elderly subjects' reasons for satisfaction with the facilities were as follows: access to meals(32%), elderly communities(24%), and good facilities(22%), whereas the reason subjects reported dissatisfaction with social difficulties(68%), bad facilities(20%), and programs(12%). The degrees of satisfaction of the respondents with the facility's employees were reported as follows: life manager(28%), nurse(16%), and social worker(15%), whereas the subjects reported some degree of dissatisfaction with: nurses(29%), care helpers(17%), and facilities officers(13%). The priorities of the elderly welfare-related information were: disease and health(49%), daily life support(17%), nursing(11%), welfare facilities(8%), and the principal issues they reported as being relevant to elderly individuals were: palsy(16%), arthritis(14%), diabetes (12%), hypertension(10%), dementia(6%). They reported that the most important personnel for elderly in the future would be care managers(44%) and care helpers(21%). Via this developmental program of silver health care professionals, a variety of new job opportunities may be provided in the future, and a program related to the silver service industry must be established as soon as possible.

• The Korean Journal of Food And Nutrition
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.583-591
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• 2008

The principal objective of this study was to assess the demands of the development program of silver health care professionals for elderly individuals residing in the Northern Gyeonggi-do area. To this end, a survey was conducted to investigate college students and employees related with elderly individuals in the area regarding their recognition, interest, and involvement in the labor training program. In the case of college students, the health education they had received was only 1 to 2 hours, from a school lecture(35%). The content of health education they desired was exercise(34%) and stress management skills(28%). The sources of health information they received included mass media(77%) and the internet(12%), and they trusted the information they received from health professionals(45%), and the mass media(34%). In the case of health professionals who were working at silver care facilities, the sources of health information to which they had access were mass media(51%), internet(14%), reliable health professionals(56%), mass media(22%), and books related to health (18%). The principal issues they reported as being relevant to the elderly were dementia(39%), hypertension(14%), arthritis (11%), and they reported that the most important personnel for elderly in the future would be care managers(44%), and care helpers(21%). 88% of subjects believed that there was a need for a silver welfare integrated information system. 43% of subjects used the internet, 77% of them required in-service training programs for the welfare of the elderly. Via this developmental program of silver health care professionals, a variety of new job opportunities can be provided in the future, and a program related to the silver service industry must be established as soon as possible.

• The Korean Journal of Health Service Management
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.187-199
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• 2015

Objectives : This study was conducted to examine social factors associated with problematic drinking among middle- and older-aged men in South Korea. Methods : The data were collected from the baseline survey of the Korean Longitudinal Study of Aging, and the sample consisted of 3,631 men between 45 and 64 years of age and 1,173 men aged 65 or older. This study employed variables identifying various socioeconomic features, social ties, and health-related factors. Logistic regressions were used for the data analysis. Results : Middle-aged men having frequent social relationship with close persons were significantly more likely to be problematic drinkers than those having less frequent social relationships with close persons. Lower education, unemployment, smoking, and depression were associated with problematic drinking only among middle-aged men. Conclusions : We suggest that health professionals develop specific intervention strategies that could lead to more moderate alcohol habits and better health in middle aged Korean men who are actively engaged in social networks. In addition, health professionals need to focus more on the unemployed, lower educated, depressed, and smoking groups for early detection of problematic drinking among middle-aged Korean men.

• The Korean Journal of Food And Nutrition
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.872-880
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• 2014

This study was conducted to assess the characteristics and satisfactions related with facility foodservice for the elderly in the Northern Gyeonggi-do area (Republic of Korea). To accomplish this, a survey was conducted to investigate the general characteristics of the elderly, health information, and satisfaction with the foodservice of a welfare facility in the area. The main sources of health information for both the male and female elderly included 'health professionals' (49.0, 45.7%) and the 'mass media' (34.4, 33.5%), and they were revealed to trust the information from 'health professionals' (65.6, 59.5%), more so than the 'mass media' (19.8, 20.8%). The principal diseases of the elderly were 'hypertension' (27.1%), 'diabetes' (21.9%), 'palsy' (19.8%) in males, and 'hypertension' (32.4%), 'diabetes' (24.9%), 'arthritis' (15.0%) in females. Most male and female elderly indicated the main reasons for skipping a meal to be 'no appetite' (37.5, 53.8%) and 'indigestion'(19.1, 17.3%), respectively. The facility foodservice was used by the male elderly for the reasons of 'irritating to cook' (28.1%), 'to meet a friend' (26.0%), and 'economic' (14.6%), while the female elderly used it for the reasons of 'economic' (25.4%), 'to meet a friend' (23.1%), and 'irritating to cook' (23.1%). The reasons for satisfaction with the facility were subject to 'meal supply' (28.0, 37.2%), 'social exchanges' (20.0, 22.3%), and 'good facilities' (18.7, 18.2%). Regarding the officers and nurses of the facility, 13.3% and 9.3% of males and 8.3% and 12.4% of females indicated satisfaction, respectively. The satisfaction with foodservice influenced the welfare facilities, and providing a successful environment for foodservice requires strengthening of the education of facilities employees to become friendlier. Based on these results, greater efforts should be made to provide meaningful information regarding the facility foodservice for the elderly related to the silver service industry in the Northern Gyeonggi-do area as soon as possible.