• 한국노년학
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.229-244
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• 2005

Korea is expected to become an "aged society" in approximately fifteen years. In order to prepare Korean society for this "aged society", the government and social organizaitons need to offer a life stage preparation manual for the young, middle-aged, and aging populations, as well as providing support structures to guide them through this transition. Researchers have developed a Life Stage Preparation Program, based on surveys and experiments conducted to assess needs and appraise effectiveness. To accomplish the goal of this research, the team has been composed of specialists from the fields of social welfare, family studies, occupational studies, and gerontology. The Life Stage Preparation Program consists of ten areas: understanding ageing issues, sustaining and improving health, psychological issues, continuing education, family relations, social activities, financial preparation, occupations, shelter, and mortality. The effectiveness of the program surveyed on age group of 20s and 60s resulted in nine areas. The Life Stage Preparation Program needs to be operated as a life long education program.

• KIEAE Journal
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.71-79
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• 2008

Lower birth rate and higher elder people are serious social problem in Korea. In 2003, the total birth rate is 1.19 per person, that record is lowest among OECD country. In 2005, Korea has been the aging society with 9.0% in aged population rate. Increasing of aged population results in elder estrangement and confliction with other generations. The social problem can be solved in some degree by improving housing environment and many kinds of welfare program. This study suggests a solution of the problem by applying community space located on ground level floor. The ground level floor of apartment has many physical benefits like connection to the earth, extension, safeness for the aged and child. in case of the National Rental apartment, small residential area and high rate of elder, child, the disabled make the ground level floor useful space for community. According to case study, almost the National Rental apartment hasn't enough facilities supporting various generations and don't supply comfortable environment. So, this study presents how to design the National Rental Apartment's community space located on ground level floor.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.329-337
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• 2023

The purpose of this study is to explore the standards and directions of professional competency and proficiency of social workers in Korea through a review of British cases. In particular, in the face of a super-aged society, this study aimed to improve the proficiency of social workers in the field of elderly welfare in Korea by examining the complacency and proficiency standards of the British Association of Social Workers and the Health Care Professionals Council related to the care of the elderly. With the structure of a Professional Capabilities Framework, the UK promotes the acquisition of competency-based qualifications by specifically presenting the competency of social workers at each stage of qualification. In addition, general and detailed standards of proficiency of social workers in the care field are presented at each qualification stage. In order to improve the competence and proficiency of Korean social workers through a case study in the UK, this study presented the need for a standard that connects "common competencies, professional competencies, and proficiency of social welfare professionals." This study also suggested the necessity of the role of Social Welfare Education Association and Association of Social Workers for this purpose

• IEMEK Journal of Embedded Systems and Applications
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.79-85
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• 2013

This paper proposes a system that utilizes USN(Ubiquitous Sensor Network), Bluetooth and smart phone to improve the function of senior houses. In typical approach, a system in a senior house either directly accesses the status of elderly people by its sensor or is alerted by elderly people who trigger an emergency bell, derive a decision and take an appropriate action. In addition, it is possible for a designated social worker to check the status of senior patients through monitoring system connected by UTP(Unshielded Uwisted Pair) cables, but the responsible person has to be present to monitor patients' status. However, the new system, suggested in this paper, embed Bluetooth function in a blood pressure gauge, thus the smart phone receives patients' health information such as blood pressure through Bluebooth, if any abnormal event occurs. Consequently, the smart phone sends SMS(Short Message Service) to a responsible social worker or a designated hospital. When this program in the paper becomes a reality, an unmanned system that is able to determine suitable actions for certain events will be established, even if a social worker were absence.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Industry Convergence
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• v.27 no.4_2
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• pp.961-972
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• 2024

As the global elderly population rapidly increases, the mental health of the elderly, particularly depression, has emerged as a significant social issue. This study analyzes the various factors influencing depression in the elderly based on the ICF model. Utilizing data from the Korea Welfare Panel Study, the study identifies the types of changes in depression among individuals aged 65 and older and examines the factors influencing these changes. This longitudinal secondary data analysis research uses the most recent three years of data (2021-2023) from the Korea Welfare Panel. The study sample consisted of 965 elderly individuals, and a latent class growth model was applied to identify the types of depression changes, while a multinomial logistic regression analysis was conducted to analyze the influencing factors. The analysis revealed that elderly depression could be categorized into four types: high-level decrease, high-level maintenance, low-level increase, and low-level maintenance. Main influencing factors included gender, age, education, poverty, social trust, social relationships, participation in economic activities, participation in religious activities, and health status. Particularly, social relationships and health status were significant factors affecting the types of depression changes. To mitigate depression in the elderly, a multifaceted approach considering both individual characteristics and social relationships and health status is required. The study suggests the development of community-based programs and trust-building activities at the community level to maintain and strengthen the social relationships of the elderly. These findings can serve as important foundational data for policies and practices aimed at improving the mental health of the elderly.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Rural Architecture
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.97-106
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• 1999

This is the basic study for being activated rural area through charged old folk's home as the rural facilities. In Korea, it was recognized legalistically from 1993, and 15 homes are operated at present by personal social worker and public-welfare service corporation. The first of 2000's, Korea will be changed aged society and a member of each family will be smaller than 3.5 persons. At that time, the many of aged korean have to live separately from their sons and daughters. And some of them will live only with their wives/husbands or alone in the charged old folk's home. Therefore, the importance and the demand of charged old folk's home will be increasing rapidly in Korea. And so we, all the rural architect have to develope it for aged person.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.69 no.1
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• pp.59-77
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• 2017

The purpose of this study is to understand Korean women in later life by identifying the relationships between providing care for grandchildren and the health of women who aged above 50 years old. Focusing on the longitudinal patterns of providing care of grandchildren and physical and psychological health, this study used data from the second, third, fourth, and fifth waves of Korean Retirement and Income Study(KReIS) and regression to analyze the data. The following results were found. First, women who stopped providing care for grandchildren were more likely to have higher physical health status in later life than those who providing no care between the second wave to the fourth wave of the KReIS(p < .05). In addition, women who have continuously provided care for grandchildren were more likely to have lower physical health status at marginally significant level. However, there is no significant relationship between providing care for grandchildren and women's psychological health status. The findings of this study suggest that there are the different findings for the relationships between providing care for grandchildren and physical health status and psychological health status based on the longitudinal patterns of providing care of grandchildren. Lastly this paper discusses implications for future researcher and social welfare practitioners.

• Physical Therapy Rehabilitation Science
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.185-192
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• 2016

Objective: The purpose of this study was to find the limited patterns of middle-aged women in selective functional movement evaluation and analyze the effects of pattern improvement exercises and general control groups on the Health Risk Appraisal (HRA). Design: Randomized controlled trial. Methods: The 31 subjects were physically healthy middle-aged women aged 40-59 living in Seoul, The subjects were randomly divided into an experimental group and a control group. Forty-three physically healthy women were originally recruited and randomly assigned to either the experimental group (n=22) or the control group (n=21). However, due to lack of participation, a total of seventeen subjects in the exercise group and fourteen subjects in the control group participated in the study. All subjects were tested using Selective Functional Movement Assessment (SFMA) and HRA for the baseline measurement and joined an exercise program of their group for one hour per session, twice a week for four weeks. The experimental group was provided with the corrective exercises and the control group was given the general fitness program. A follow-up test was conducted after eight weeks from the baseline measurement. Results: Both experimental and control group showed significant changes in SFMA and HRA scores (p<0.05). In the experimental group and control groups, the SFMA and HRA showed significant improvement from baseline to 4 weeks (p<0.05). Also, in the experimental group, the SFMA was significantly improved from baseline to 8 weeks (p<0.05). For the experimental group, there was a significant improvement in SFMA after 4 weeks compared to the control group (p<0.05). Conclusions: The corrective exercise in the experimental group had a positive effect on the SFMA score as well as the general squat exercise in the control group. The corrective exercise and general control group had the same positive effect on the HRA score.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.19 no.8
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• pp.524-534
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• 2018

The purpose of this study is to find out the correlations between the stress that middle-aged women experience and their coping methods and to present intervening variables to promote active coping methods. The subjects of this study are 400 middle-aged women from 35 to 59 years old living in S area and the results are as follows. The relationship between middle-aged women's stress, self-defense mechanism, and stress-coping method shows as follows: the role stress is positively correlated with immature defense mechanism, self-restraint defense mechanism and conflict-avoiding defense mechanism. Among stress-coping methods, the problem-centered coping method was found to be negatively correlated with role stress and daily stress. the immature defense mechanism shows negative correlations with the problem-centered coping, but shows positive correlations with the emotion-centered coping and the wishful thinking. Among the self-defense mechanism types not effective in the social-support coping method.

• Korean Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.929-945
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• 2012

This study examined structured social network types and their relationship to quality on life satisfaction of older adults. Respondents were 418 adults aged 60 or older living alone or as couples. The data was analyzed using K-means cluster analysis. Four networks types were identified: diverse, friend-neighbor focused, family focused, and restricted. Life satisfaction was highest for individuals in the diverse network group and lowest for individuals in the restricted network group. Stepwise multiple regression analysis indicated that life satisfaction of the elderly was affected by the diverse network, family focused network, the relationship quality with children, the relationship quality with neighbors, and the relationship quality with relatives. Results suggested that having diverse social network in close proximity is very important in old age and structural network types may have important practical implications for improving the quality of life among the elderly.