• The Korean Journal of Community Living Science
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.201-210
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• 2010

Over the past few decades, the proportion of elderly people in Korea has been rapidly increasing. In particular, rural areas are experiencing aging of communities more rapidly compared to urban areas. However, public policy for the elderly does not respond to the needs of rural elderly. To distribute health care resources equitably, it is necessary to gather reliable information on the health status of the elderly. The purpose of this study is to explore factors affecting Korean elderly people's ADL functional status. The data sources are from 2004 Elderly Living Condition Survey. The Analysis sample consists of 3,278 cases. Analysis results show that there is a significant residential variability in education, monthly stipend, living arrangement, subjective health status, regular food in-take, and regular exercise. Logistic regression analysis results also show that 'cognitive ability'(exp(B)=6.603), 'subjective health status'(exp(B)=4.576), 'age'(exp(B)=2.610), and 'living arrangement'(exp(B)=.589) are factors affecting ADLs. Namely, when a respondent's cognitive ability is limited, subjective health status is poor, or if their age is over 75, the probability of having a limited ADL has been 6.6 times, 4.6 times, and 2.6 times higher than otherwise. Among these variables, cognitive ability was the best explanation. In contrast, respondents who live with a spouse or adult children have a lower probability of having limited ADL compared with those who live alone. Considering that the most critical criteria in determining eligibility for social welfare services is ADLs, the development of appropriate ADL assessment tools is in an urgent need. Without the accurate assessment on ADLs, particularly on rural as well as the urban elderly, it seems to be hard to achieve effectiveness in the health care policy for the elderly.

• The Korean Journal of Community Living Science
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.123-139
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• 2006

The purpose of this study is to search how to promote health and improve nutrition and health care of the elderly people in rural area. Behaviors for health promotion and habits against health risk were surveyed. Dietary management was analyzed for surveyed nutrient intake by 24 hr -recall method. 242 subjects were collected in 12 cities or counties in Gyeonggi Province and 20 elderly people (10 male and 10 female) were selected out of 1 village in each district. Questionnaire for health behavior and dietary management was carried out by trained interviewers. Statistical analyses were made by SAS (version 8.1) and Chi-square tests and General Linear Models were used. Characteristics of the elderly people were 61-74 year-olds (68.2%), elementary school educated (78.4%), with spouse (51.7%), monthly living cost of 500-1,000 thousand won(43.4%), and monthly pocket money of 50-100 or 100-200 thousand won(33.5%, 26.5%). 41.4% of the subjects checked up medical examination regularly. The alcohol drinking status was significantly different according to gender: high no-drink rate of female (52.5%) and low no-drink rate of male (25.6%). Kinds of disease were different according to gender: higher proportion of cardiovascular disease(46.3%) and diabetes mellitus(8.1 %) in male and joint lumbago neuralgia(44.4%) and osteoporosis(8.6%) in female. Gastrointestinal complaints were nausea (69.0%) and chronic indigestion (17.8%). Constipation (12.0%) and vomiting (4.3%) were more frequent in female. Dietary management was good (3 meals per day: 93.4%., dining with family: 72.4%, regular mealtime: 72.4%, and 3-4 times of snacks per week: 44.9%) except side dish taking of 3-4 kinds only. However, almost one-third of the female elderly ate alone (30.6%) which was well compared with one-fifth of the male (19.7%). And food and nutrients intake were not significantly different according to gender except that male elderly's intake of energy and protein was lower than that of female's. The surveyed subjects had no difficulties in Activities of Daily Living (ADL), but some female elderly had some difficulties with Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADL) like working at home, using transport, and going shopping. These results suggest that low quality of life linked with low economic status of the rural elderly and that congregate meal at village hall would be required for the female elderly eating alone. For the undernourished male elderly, it would be needed to provide snacks and to establish nutrition and health surveillance system.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Rural Architecture
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.21-28
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• 2013

Problems of housing, healthcare, social exchanges, and lonely feelings of vulnerable social groups such as the elderly living alone in rural and fishing villages should be resolved by guaranteeing minimum residential rights and levels to restore the sense of self-esteem and social stability and to maintain the rural communities and these should be the object of social interest and support. The housing problems of rural and fishing villages should be resolved not through supply to meet demand but by beginning with providing the ways to attain mutual interaction through the program that recognizes housing as merit goods to maintain the regional communities This research examines more minutely the problems caused by poor housing conditions of rural and fishing villages and attempts to present rural and fishing village type community living home as an alternative through regeneration. The results of this research are as follows. First, the administrative support system should be built to support the community living home in its beginning, process, completion, and even post management. Second, education for reinforcing capabilities to help understand the community living home should continually conducted on the occupants, villagers, and related organizations. Third, in order to expand the community living home, research and development should be made so that the zero-energy house, the alternative energy utilizing house, etc. can be widely used. In building community living home for vulnerable social groups in rural and fishing villages, practical alternatives suitable to the regional realities should be presented and practiced so that the community living home can be built to the satisfaction of all the villagers and the occupants, and the improvement measures should be presented through constant interest and monitoring.

• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.65-86
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• 1990

Living conditions of the rural elderly were assessed in terms of clothing behavior, health and nutritional status, housing and envioronmental condition, and psychological adjustment. The subjects were eighty individuals over sixty residing in the rural community of Iksan-kun, Chollabukdo. The interview method using questionnaires, direct measurement, and observation was used for this study. Data were compared with those obtained from a previous study of the elderly residing in an urban area. Clothing behavior showed that the elderly residing in the rural community were more concerned about plain and conservative design of clothes than their urban counterparts. Special protective clothes for cropdusting with agricultural chemicals had not been prepared. The following urgent needs were pointed out: development and supply of agricultural chemical protective clothing and development and education of appropriate washing and clothing care methods. The health status of the elderly was generally good, but poor eating habits were found more frequently in the rural elderly than among the urban dwellers. Several dietary nutrient intakes were insufficient. Contrasting the urban elderly with the rural group, it was found that the urban group lacked sufficient vitamin A and vitamin C and the urban women had insufficient calorie whereas the rural group was deficient in protein, vitamin A, calorie, and fat. A significant relationship was found between dietary nutrient intake and health index, food habit points, self recognized health status, meal satisfaction, and economic status. Urgent needs of the development of a nutrition education program for the elderly were pointed out. Most of elderly residing in the surveyed rural communities were living alone or with their spouse only, therefore only one room was used among the three or four available rooms. Most of the rural elderly were living either in a traditional Korean house built with differing floor levels or in a modified Korean style house. Minimal modernization had been made for kitchen facilities such as sink and gas range or for heating facilities with the briquette boiler. However, sanitary space such as lavatory and bathroom had not been remodeled. A housing welfare program for rural communities should be implemented at the national level. The comparison of psychological characteristics of the rural elderly with their city counterparts revealed that the rural elderly have a more stable psychological status and optimistic attitude than those living in a city. However, it was found that most of the elderly did not have any future plan. Community programs for the elderly including hobbies or leisure activities or education programs to generate close interpersonal relationships with their children should be developed and provided.

• Journal of Korean Academic Society of Home Health Care Nursing
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• v.5
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• pp.61-72
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• 1998

The purpose of this study was to identify the risk factors affecting home care patients 65 years of age and older with symptoms of depression. The author conducted this study for 80 depressed and non-depressed who were taking home care. Data was colleted from November 1996 to October 1997. The major findings of this study were as follows. Significant mean group differences were found on age and income in old home care patients with symptoms of depression, compared with non -depressed. Old home care patients who have less than 300,000won of income, smoking, exercise, unsatisfactory of home care, living in saparateness, rent, living alone, unbalanced diet, irregular diet were statistically significant risk factors by logistic regression. Old home care patients who do not exercise, less than 300,000won of income, unsatisfactory of home care, smoking, living alone were the risk factors by final logistic regression model predicting depression.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.716-729
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• 2011

This study aimed to plan nutrition support programs for the elderly living alone whose nutrition status were seriously concerned, conducted seven stages nutrition intervention program on a trial basis, and evaluated the effectiveness of the program of the Elderly Nutrition Support Project. Subjects were selected for personalized nutrition management based on nutritional risk score and nutrition intervention were tailored to the problems occurred. The elderly nutrition support program targets were 44 senior citizens who lived alone with low income. The 33 (as Type 1) of the subjects with whom milk, tofu, seaweed, eggs, black beans have been supported, and also provide nutrition education, and the rest 11 persons (as Type 2) to whom food was not supported but provide nutrition education programs. As a result, all subjects showed that compared with pre and post program implementation, their daily exercise time and milk and protein consumption level were increased and some improvement was observed regular meals consumption and low-salt diets. Their nutrient intake level such as calories, protein, calcium, iron improved after implementation. In addition, NSL DETERMINE scores significantly improved from 13.21 to 7.24 in Type 1 and 11.27 to 9.91 in Type 2. As positive dietary behavioral changes were observed as in that they purchased more protein and calcium rich foods.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.373-381
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• 2007

The elderly population in Korea is growing rapidly and their nutritional status is not acceptable. Data were collected from the self-administered questionnaire of 495 free living elderly, over 65years old, in Korea to asses the intake and consumption pattern of milk and dairy products. The questionnaire contains demographics, health related characteristics, and perception on milk, and consumption behaviors of milk and dairy products. Most of the elderly subjects understood that milk is good foods in terms of nutritive value and health. And 67% of the subjects satisfied with the sanitation status of milk on the markets. The kind of milk that majority of the subjects consumed was whole milk, and only 5.1% of them consumed low fat milk. Less than 20% of the subjects consumed milk everyday, living alone group consumed milk less frequently than living with others. It was found that the majority of the elderly subjects did not meet current recommendation for milk. Liquid and curd type yogurt were the major dairy products used among elderly, and the reasons were good taste and digestion. They believed that these kinds of dairy products help constipation and digestion problems. The price of milk was ranked for the first factor needed to be considered for milk and dairy products consumption in elderly korean.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Rural Architecture
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.1-8
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• 2011

Korea is moving toward an aging society faster than the other advance countries such as the U.S. and France. Such aging phenomena are posing greater problems in rural areas than in urban areas, and particularly, decrease in productivity caused by aging population leads to economic difficulties and hinders the improvement of housing life. The purpose of this research is to examine and identify the housing conditions of the vulnerable in rural areas and to present ways to improve the elderly housing and the housing environment in rural areas and to provide basic data for materializing the policies to enhance the quality of life. The results of this research are as follows. First, the elderly in rural areas were found to receive relatively smooth supports for services related to clothing and food through the government and social organizations. But for the housing problems, it was found that there were not any supports. Second, the poor housing environment may cause diseases to the elderly with weak immunity, so ways to remedy these problems are urgently needed. Third, the vulnerable in rural areas can hardly bear the burden of improving the housing environment, so supports from the government and social organizations are needed. Fourth, ways to support the vulnerable such as households receiving basic living subsidies and to support the poor who are not receiving such subsidies should be explored.

• 한국노년학
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.103-123
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• 2018

The purpose of this research is to study how an elderly male lives after the experience of bereavement, and to understand the experience's essence. The researcher picked 3 elderly men living alone after separation by death as test subjects and gathered information through in-depth interviews. The analysis of the information was done based on the three-dimensional space of narrative presented by Clandinin and Connely(2000), and it restructures the common experience under five meanings. The mutual themes of 'It's the life of a sinner, but not wanting to be seen as a widower to others', 'The fear for death, and the preparation for after death', 'Trying to stay alive for the children', 'Entering the world to find meaning in a gloomy life', and 'A lone goose lost in search of social warmth' came from the research results. The essence of the experience studied with the mutual themes as basis came out to be 'A struggle to take flight again after one broken wing'. This research has a major significance in that elderly males' experience of bereavement was studied in the dimension of time continuity, and that individual social interactions that are made by elderly males to continue their lives after the experience of bereavement were studied.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.271-281
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• 2015

Using data from 2011 Elderly Living Condition Survey database, this study analyzed risk factors for suicide ideation of Korean elderly persons. The analysis sample consists of 10,003 cases. The main purpose of this research was to explore the effects of social quality factor on suicide ideation of Korean elderly persons. Analysis results show that gender, age, area of residence, living alone, subjective standard of living, activities of daily living(ADLs), and geriatric depression are significant predictors of suicide ideation. Key findings are that social quality factor such as experiencing feeling hurt from others' words and actions like avoiding conversations, disregarding one's opinions, pretending to be not heard, getting irritated, grumbling, etc. has the largest effects on suicide ideation. Analysis results imply that without improving social quality, it would not be possible to lower elderly suicide rate.