• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.47 no.1
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• pp.67-76
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• 2014

Purpose: This study was conducted in order to analyze the dietary habits and food intake status according to the prevalence of depression in adults. Methods: A total of 496 subjects, 224 men and 272 women aged 50 to 100 years were recruited from more than 13 cities in Korea. The questionnaires consisted of general characteristics, dietary life status, food intakes, the mean mini dietary assessment and satisfaction with food-related life questionnaire of the subjects to ask according to the degree of depression. Depression status was evaluated according to the Korean form of the Geriatric Depression Scale (K-GDS). Results: All subjects were divided into depression or normal groups; the prevalence of depression was 13.8% (male) and 23.9% (female). People aged 65 or older were more likely to have higher prevalence of depression and to be bereaved. People in the depression group had poor appetite, almost never dined-out, and ate alone. The food intake of miscellaneous cereals, beans, tofu, chicken/duck meat, cabbage, carrot/amber, fungi, apple, pear, strawberry, grapes, and banana was significantly higher in the normal group compared with the depression group. In particular, significantly higher intake of vegetables and fruits was observed in the normal group. In addition, subjects in the depression group ate more fatty meat and were more dissatisfied with food-related life than those in the normal group. Conclusion: The results of this study imply that the prevalence of depression may affect the dietary habits, food intake, and dietary behaviors in the older adult population.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.22 no.7
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• pp.443-477
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• 2022

The purpose of this study was to explore the continuing bonds experienced by adolescent victims' 15 parents of the Sewol ferry disaster. The research aim is to classify the continuing bonds into representational, functional, emotional, and relationship characteristics through contents analysis and identify them. The way dimension was found to be continuing bond through "physical objects and space," "dream and spiritual exchange," "personal memorial and ritual activities," "thoughts of deceased children," and "surviving children." In the "functional dimension," it was found that sustainable ties help families find new meanings and purposes in their lives and comfort them by making them feel they are with their children. In addition, at the emotional level, they experienced 'positive emotions' while feeling with their children, and experienced 'pain', and some research participants found it difficult to sustain the bond itself. At the level of each relationship characteristic, the relationship between parents and children was an extension of the relationship even after the child was deceased, and the relationship characteristics were reproduced. The implications for grief counseling were presented by applying a dead two-axis model to the results of this study.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Integrative Medicine
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.99-114
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• 2023

Purpose : The purpose of this study was to determine factors that affect the quality of life (QoL) of people with diabetes. We hope to provide a basis for intervention strategies for health promotion and related research among patients with diabetes in the field of physical therapy. Methods : We selected individuals diagnosed with diabetes who were aged 19 years or higher by using data from the 2019 Korean Health Panel survey and analyzed the results of 1,527 people. The influencing factors were sex, age, household income, marital status, age, education level, subjective health status, body mass index (BMI), smoking, drinking, regular exercise, experience of depression and anxiety, suicidal thoughts, stress, and frequency of walking (days/week). Frequency analysis, descriptive statistics, independent sample t-test, one-way analysis of variance, and multiple regression analysis were performed. Results : The EQ-5D score for QoL was .87 ± .12, with pain and discomfort being the most detrimental to the QoL of people with diabetes. In terms of patients characteristics, the QoL was lower among participants who were female, older, and separated/widowed/divorced; had an education level below middle school; had a poor subjective health status; were non-smokers and drinkers; and did not walk and exercise regularly, experienced a lot of stress, and experienced depression and anxiety; and had suicidal thoughts (p<.001). Being separated/bereaved/divorced; experiencing a lot of stress, depression, and anxiety; and having suicidal thoughts were negatively associated with QoL in people with diabetes (p<.01). On the other hand, age of 65 years or younger; graduation from high school, fair or better subjective health, regular exercise and alcohol consumption, and walking (days/week) were positively associated with QoL (p<.05). Conclusion : Regarding the QoL of patients with diabetes, intervention strategies should be formulated by considering general characteristics and disease-related characteristics. Among the various factors affecting QoL, the number of walking and regular exercise were found to be the factors that improved the QoL of patients with diabetes. These results can be used as a basis for the education and management of patients with diabetes in the field of physical therapy.

• Korean Journal of Labor Studies
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.129-164
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• 2017

This article is an exploratory study on the recent growth of short-hours part-time work in Korea. The short-hours part-time work has been rapidly growing among low-educated women over sixty, particularly among bereaved or divorced women, contrary to the expectation of the government that encouraged the part-time work by means of work-family balance for working mothers or middle-aged women who experienced career interruption. The short-hours part-time jobs are concentrated in social service industry, mostly elderly care service jobs, and their working conditions are extremely poor, mostly low-wage jobs with no social insurances except for health insurance. In this study, we discuss why the short-hours part-time work has grown so fast in Korea since the mid 2000s. Using various governmental statistics, we examine the effects of the labor demand and supply situations during the time period, the legal context that is related with the exempt clause of the labor law, and the institutional context related with the government's public job creation projects for the elderly. We suggest some public policies needed to slow down the growth of the short-hours part-time jobs and to elevate their working conditions.

• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.103-113
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• 2011

Objective: This study was conducted to investigate the relationship between the degree of stress and social support among residents in a rural area. Methods: We used the baseline data of the Korean Genomic Rural Cohort (KGRC), a sub-cohort of the Korean Genome Epidemiology Study (KOGES) that collected data about relationships among environmental, genetic risk factors, and chronic illness in Korean adults since November 2005. The cases chosen for the study included 1737 men and women, aged 40 to 70, living in a rural area of Wonju-city, South Korea. A questionnaire interviewing method was addressed in 2006. The final participants consisted of 1349 participants, of which 589 were male (43.7%) and 760 were female (56.3%). We applied the hierarchical multiple regression analysis with three stages. The first and second stages include socio-demographic and health-related behaviour factors and the third stage includes more social support factors. Results: The main findings revealed that the amount of social support and health-related behaviour significantly influenced the level of stress the subjects reported. The degree of stress was shown to be significantly higher for the following individuals: females, those who were divorced, the bereaved, participants who suffer from chronic disease, and non-exercisers. Low social support was shown to be negatively associated with stress. Conclusion: Social support factors along with socio-demographic and health-related behavior had an influence on stress levels in Korean rural adults. It is necessary to relieve residents from stress through diverse social support programs and healthy living initiatives.

• Korean Security Journal
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• no.18
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• pp.1-20
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• 2009

Nowadays most nations around the world including Korea have experienced absolute shortages of available urban space. To solve various problems of the city, each nation constantly tends to extend the underground space. However there is a serious problem in making use of the underground space. Especially new terrorism coming into existence after 9.11 terror turns into the so-called ‘soft target’ which has something to do with public transportation facilities available to most people. Good examples are like these: poisonous gas attacks in Tokyo subway in 1995, Daegu subway station fire in 2003, serial bomb blast of London subway in 2005. In spite of being a concern on incidents related to the underground space it is inevitable to utilize the underground space and the tendency is growing. But Korea lags badly behind in foreign countries in this field and so seeking measures is urgently needed. Therefore the aim of this study is to note visible damages stemmed from the domestic and foreign underground space and propose more effective and adequate measures. Safety measures of terrorism are associated to minimize damage out of terrorism and they are as follows. In the first place, preparing protective equipment for saving a life from fire attacks and poisonous gas is needed urgently. In the second place, counterpart management on the spot and systematic security training should be established in order to minimize injury. In the third place, fire escapes must be provided for a rapid evacuation of potential unspecified individuals. In the fourth place, building up a network of related institutions is required for a systematic omnidirectional counterpart. Finally the Korean government ought to take fast and appropriate actions for the injured and bereaved family of the terror incident.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.15-20
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• 2017

We are investigated about the Hepatitis infection risk of the funeral director related to wearing PPE(Personal Protect Equipment) within Metropolitan, Chungcheong and Gyeongsang regions in Korea. We are classified that the vaccinated group was classified as low risk group and the non-vaccinated group was classified as high risk group. And we are analyzed the risk rate of infection based on whether or not to wear PPE(personal protective equipment) among high-risk groups. The result is as follows. The mask wearing rate of high-risk group about HAV(hepatitis A virus) is three times lower than that of low-risk group. The surgical glove wearing rate of high-risk group about HBV(hepatitis B virus) is twice lower than that of low-risk group. The surgical glove and mask not wearing rate among the high-risk group observe that potential infection risk was high 4.23 times and 3.5 times, respectively. We are concluded that increasing the risk of potential infection risks from the funeral director could result in increased risk of infection to national public health, including the bereaved family. We are suggested that the funeral director must be bound to vaccinate against hepatitis and make PPE mandatory. It is deemed necessary for the government to develop policies to promote personal health and national health care.

• 한국노년학
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.1083-1101
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• 2011

The purpose of this study is to describe how the structural and functional features of social network change among widowed middle and older adults and to examine the effect of personal predictors of the social network change. Data was obtained from men and women between 45 to 98 years of age(N=118) who were bereaved by the death of their spouse since the first wave survey and participated in the second wave survey of the Korean Longitudinal Study of Ageing(KLoSA). The main findings are as follows: First, their social network after the bereavement was strengthened centered around children; for example, the number of adult children living in proximity to the parent, frequency of contact with children, and the financial and non-financial support from children generally increased. Second, the social network change pattern was categorized into four types such as "overall increased type," "children-centered increased type," "children/close relationship-centered increased type," and "stagnation type." Finally, the health condition of the widowed middle and older adults was a strong predictor of the social network change.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.12 no.9
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• pp.49-56
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• 2021

The purpose of this study was to provide a convergence suggestion of health care and social welfare services by empirically analyzing the effects of chronic diseases and quality of life on subjective health cognition in single-household women aged 60 or over. This study was based on the 2016-2019 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, and 1,111 women who had been divorced or bereaved in single-household aged 60 or over were selected. As a result, it was arthritis that showed the largest average difference in subjective health cognition according to the prevalence of chronic diseases. And in the multiple regression analysis that was controlled for demographic characteristics, chronic disease had a negative (-) effect on subjective health cognition, and quality of life had a positive (+) effect on subjective health cognition. The negative (-) factor that had the greatest effect on subjective health cognition was diabetes(-0.084) among chronic diseases, and the positive (+) factor was mobility(+0.173) among the quality of life. Therefore, it suggests that health care services for chronic diseases should be strengthened in order to improve the subjective health cognition of single-person households over 60 years old, and social welfare policies to improve the quality of life should be considered together in a convergence.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.25-35
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• 2011

Objectives: This study aimed to compare depression and social support according to general characteristics and to investigate the influence of social support on depression. Methods: This study analyzed raw data from a project funded by Jeju Province. Data were collected through home visit interview with 750 households selected by using a randomized cluster sampling method. CES-D was used to measure depression, and the Medical Outcomes Study Social Support Survey was used to measure social support. The data of 1,155 subjects were analyzed using t-test, ANOVA, and regression. Results: The mean was 11.35 for depression and 75.53 for social support. Women showed a higher depression score and a lower social support score than men did. Older people; the divorced or the bereaved; and those in groups comprising people with lower education, lower social class, poor health, or high stress presented higher depression and lower social support. The result of stepwise regression showed that social support was one of the predictive variables of depression, and 22% of variance was explained by social support in this study. Conclusions: Social support was a powerful predictive variable of depression, and it was suggested that to prevent and manage depression, strategies that enhance social support should be developed and evaluated.