• Journal of Korean Public Health Nursing
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.450-465
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• 2013

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify cognitive impairment and risk factors among elderly persons aged 60 or more in Korea using raw data from the 2008 Elderly Survey: Basic Analysis Report of Actual Living Condition of the Elderly and Welfare Need Survey in Korea. Methods: This study was conducted using raw data obtained from 13,335 subjects representing elderly persons aged 60 or more in Korea. Data were analyzed using SPSS 19.0 software. Results: The rate of cognitive impairment was found to be 22.0%. Logistic regression analysis became more prevalent with increased aged. In addition elderly subjects with the following factors showed increased cognitive impairment: mails; underweight; slept well for 3 to 4 days per week at most; lack of high intensity physical activity; Eub/Myoun area; did not live alone; did not graduate from high school; un-employed; lack of active social participation, and not computer/Internet savvy. Conclusion: This study identified cognitive impairment and risk factors among elderly persons aged 60 or more in Korea using samples representing elderly persons aged 60 or more throughout the country.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.55
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• pp.283-307
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• 2003

The social services for the elderly have been expending in order to respond to the rapid speed of aging. However, low utilization, exclusion and duplication have been pointed out as significant problems in service utilization of the elderly. This study tried to find out the utilization patterns of social services for the elderly: what kinds of and how many social services the elderly receive from what kinds of and how many organizations, and factors influencing utilization of the social services. It surveyed the entire population of the public assistance recipient elderlies at Kyonggi province in 1999. The results show that duplication is not so significant problem as the low utilization of social services. However, the fact that more than forty five percent of the elderly receives social services from more than two organizations requires the efforts for service linkage and coordination in social service delivery system. The factors, which have relatively big influence on the number of organizations which the elderly use for each social service, were sex and age among the predisposing factors, "living alone" and place for residency among the enabling factors and the number of illness, Activities of Daily Living, Instrumental Activities of Daily Living and inconvenience of housing among the needs factors. These results call for expansion of social services for the elderly especially in the way of achieving distribution balance between the rural and urban area and activation of case management practice and local association of social service delivery agencies for service linkage and coordination.

• The Korean Journal of Food & Health Convergence
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.7-13
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• 2022

The purpose of this study was to compare the nutrient intake of elderly according to their cohabitation status and determine its effects on the prevalence of anemia. Data from the KNHANES were used for this study, including raw data on socioeconomic characteristics, nutrient intake, health status, and clinical laboratory findings. Study subjects aged 60 to 80 years were retrieved and analyzed. As a result, the prevalence of anemia was 12.0% (men, 11.6%; women, 12.3%). The prevalence rate increased with age, and odds ratio [OR] of anemia among those aged 75 to 80 years was 4.16 times higher in men (OR=4.16, 95% confidence interval [CI]=2.48-6.97) and 2.77 times higher in women (OR=2.77, 95% CI=1.86-4.14) compared to 60~64 years old. Socioeconomic factors (area of residence, education level, household income), including cohabitation Status (living alone VS living with other family members), and health behaviors (high-risk drinking, smoking, aerobic exercise) did not significantly effect on anemia. In addition, other than protein intake for men, nutrient intake did not have a significant effect on the prevalence rate of anemia. Hypertension, diabetes, and cancer significantly increased the risk of anemia. In Korea, the influencing factors of elderly anemia change over time, so periodic follow-up studies are needed.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.21 no.8
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• pp.304-314
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• 2020

This study examined the experiences of the suicide crisis and recovery process by elderly women living alone to identify the essential meaning and components of life as a life to live again. In addition, the recovery of the research participants, as well as the phenomenon of such changes in thought and life, were examined. The results of this study were as follows. Data analysis yielded four components, eight sub-components, and 16 semantic unit reductions. There were four components of suicide attempts and recovery experiences of elderly women. They were "disconnection and disqualification," "repeated hardships," "road of prosperity in trouble," and "generous tolerance." The essential topics of these components have emerged not as individual but as holistic and contextually connectable topics. Finally, to summarize the results, the essential semantic structure of the suicide attempt and recovery experience of elderly women living alone is a result of a dysfunctional social structure and environment, which has placed pressure on the life of research participants. As an alternative method to overcome, they tried to solve the problem through the extreme practice of suicide attempts, but positive energy to live again due to emotional recovery factors recognized through suicide failures have made it possible to cope with the difficult reality.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.44-54
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• 2018

The main goal of this study was to investigate the factors influencing the life satisfaction of elderly individuals living alone. We analyzed the data obtained in 2016 through "Survey on Residents'Quality of Life in Gyeonggi Province", performing stepwise multiple regression on 824 cases. The results were as follows: First, age, income, and education had a significant impact on life satisfaction, while sex, marital status, and employment had no influence on life satisfaction. Second, as individual-level factors, self-rated health, exercise, and participation in religious activities and social associations had a significant and positive impact on life satisfaction. Third, the results showed that both helping others in neighborhood and trusting people in the neighborhood, between-person factors, positively influenced their subjective quality of life, but receiving help from the neighborhood did not significantly affect life satisfaction. Fourth, satisfaction with cultural facilities, one of the physical environmental factors, was associated with life satisfaction. These results suggest that multi-level factors influencing life satisfaction should be considered to enhance the quality of life of elderly individuals. In particular, they suggest that when planning measures, it is necessary to consider built-environments for the elderly.

• The Journal of the Institute of Internet, Broadcasting and Communication
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.243-250
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• 2018

This paper designs and implements a smart care system for the senior citizen who lives alone. Recently, as the level of living has increased due to the rapid improvement of medicine, living standard and environment, the proportion of the elderly population is increasing. In addition, the proportion of the elderly living alone, which is increasing with the aging society, suggests that the provision of services such as the elder care system and emergency notification is becoming an important issue. However, since the existing emergency notification technology analyzes fixed CCTV images, it is difficult to monitor in the blind spot of CCTV and to move to a place where the camera is not installed. There is a problem that it can not be performed. Therefore, in this paper, we design and develop a smart care system that utilizes robot and object tracking technology that can move in real time to overcome these shortcomings. This enables real-time monitoring regardless of the location, and prompts for assistance in case of an emergency, so that it can provide convenience to cares and assistants.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.139-167
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• 2009

A new public insurance for long-term care was introduced in July 2008 to provide for the rising demand for long-term care as the population is aging rapidly. The demand for long-term care is expected to rise further because more and more elderly are living alone or in households with only other elderly, such as his/her spouse, without informal care of their adult children. Even when the elderly are living together with their adult children, daughters and daughters in law, once the main informal care-givers, are not available because they choose to become economically active and work more over time. Experiences of countries such as Japan and Germany with similar public long-term care insurance scheme highlight the importance of detailed analysis on the demand for long-term care for the financial stability of the insurance scheme. Countries which had underestimated the demand for long-term care at the time of adopting the scheme went through financial instability of insurance schemes. This study analyzes the determinants of the demand for long-term care using data from the second demonstration project (April 2006~April 2007) of the long-term care insurance scheme for the elderly in Korea. Taking full advantage of detailed data on the long-term care, this paper analyzes the eligibility for the long-term care insurance scheme and its use. According to study results, even when common diseases among the elderly such as cancer, diabetes, arthritis, dementia, hypertension, etc. are controlled together with other individual and socioeconomic factors, limitations the elderly are faced with in their twelve activities of daily living significantly affect the eligibility for the Korean Long-term Care Insurance Scheme. This means that limitations in daily living activities are more critical than common diseases among the elderly are to the eligibility for the Korean Long-term Care Insurance Scheme. Bathing and toileting problems have been found to be the most important factor affecting the eligibility for the insurance scheme, followed by eating, dressing and moving around inside the house. Moreover, the choices of whether to use long-term care and which to use between home care and institutional care are found to be significantly influenced by health status and various socioeconomic factors of the elderly. In particular, those with more limitations in daily living activities and the female elderly are more likely to use long-term care and institutional care rather than home care. As for home care users, those living alone or with adult children and those with monthly household income of more than 500,000 won are more likely to use home care. Most importantly, even when the monthly household income of the elderly is controlled, the elderly recipients of the National Basic Living Security, who are not charged for long-term care, are more likely to choose home care. This implies that price as well as income is a critical factor for the decision to use long-term care. Further study on the duration of long-term care use will surely enhance the long-term care policy, when panel data is available for simultaneous analysis of the likelihood of long-term care use and its use duration.

• Journal of Gynecologic Oncology
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.97.1-97.12
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• 2018

Objective: Women with cervical cancer (CC) found to have positive surgical margins, positive lymph nodes, and/or parametrial invasion receive a survival benefit from postoperative chemoradiotherapy (CRT) vs. radiation therapy (RT) alone. However, older women may not benefit to the same extent, as they are at increased risk of death from non-oncologic causes as well as toxicities from oncologic treatments. This study sought to evaluate whether there was a survival benefit of CRT over RT in elderly patients with cervical cancer. Methods: The National Cancer Database was queried for patients ${\geq}70$ years old with newly diagnosed IA2, IB, or IIA CC and positive margins, parametrial invasion, and/or positive nodes on surgical resection. Statistics included logistic regression, Kaplan-Meier overall survival (OS), and Cox proportional hazards modeling analyses. Results: Altogether, 166 patients met inclusion criteria; 62 (37%) underwent postoperative RT and 104 (63%) underwent postoperative CRT. Younger patients and those living in areas of higher income were less likely to receive CRT, while parametrial invasion and nodal involvement were associated with an increased likelihood (p<0.05 for all). There were no OS differences by treatment type. Subgroup analysis by number of risk factors, as well as each of the 3 risk factors separately, also did not reveal any OS differences between cohorts. Conclusion: In the largest such study to date, older women with postoperative risk factor(s) receiving RT alone experienced similar survival as those undergoing CRT. Although causation is not implied, careful patient selection is paramount to balance treatment-related toxicity risks with theoretical outcome benefits.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.699-709
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• 2009

In order to identify valuable factors for improving dietary quality of Korean rural elderly, the consumption frequency of food groups, dietary habits and health behaviors related to nutrient intakes of the elderly over 85 of Sunchang County were studied. The 171 subjects (61 males and 110 females) were chosen from Sunchang Province by stratified sampling. Among food groups, the consumption frequency of meat and fish groups influenced significantly on their nutrient intakes than the other groups. The subjects consuming more than 4 times per week of meat or fish had significantly higher nutrient intakes level than the other groups. The group consuming milk and milk products everday was higher in vitamin $B_2$ intake level than the other groups. Among dietary habits, the groups with good appetite and regular mealtime compared with the groups with low appetite and irregular mealtime had significantly higher nutrient intake levels. The family type was the determining factor of nutrient intakes. The subjects living with family members consumed higher nutrient intakes than the subjects living alone. The smoking and the alcohol consumption themselves did not affect nutrient intakes, but the subjects having alcohol consumption frequently more than once a day had lower nutrient intakes than the others. The group with dentures did not differ significantly from the without denture group in nutrient intakes; however, those who had chewing problems showed the lower nutrient intakes compared to those who did not have chewing problems. The subjects with more than two kinds of clinical symptoms had lower nutrient intakes than the subjects with less than two kinds of clinical symptoms. These results indicate that the identifying factors for desirable nutrient intakes of rural elderly were characterized as appropriate consumption frequencies of meat and fish, good appetite, living with family, regular mealtime, chewing without difficulty, and low incidence of chronic disease.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Rural Health Nursing
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.13-27
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• 2017

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to identify health-related factors, especially for the elderly who are subject to visiting health care at vulnerable populations. Methods: Tools were Guide to Community Integrated Health Promotion Project 2016, Visit Health Care Health Interview Survey, measures of physical function, motor skills, composite mobility, BMI, and subjective fitness levels. Depression was measured with the Short Results: Older elders living alone were more vulnerable than those with living others. Elders with less education showed greater weakness but the difference was not significant. Average scores for frailty were 2.21 (healthy group), 7.66 (high-risk group) and 15.69 (frail group). Scores based on weakness level differed significantly with the exception of nutrition. Nine out of 10 elders in disadvantaged areas were in the frail group or at high risk. Conclusion: Results support the goal to maintain/improve physical/mental functions through individual management of high-risk/frail older adults at risk of becoming infirm. It is imperative to implement a public health care delivery system to ensure programs are operated effectively and personalized.