• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.17 no.12
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• pp.426-436
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• 2017

The purpose of this study was to determine the moderating effect of subjective health state of elder who lives alone on the influence of those people's stratum consciousness on their depression. For this purpose, the study utilized the 5th version of Korea Longitudinal Study on Aging 2014 and analyzed data concerning 774 elder who lives alone. The findings of this study can be summarized as follows. First, the higher elder who lives alone were in subjective stratum consciousness, the lower they were in depression. Second, elder who lives alone were lower in depression when perceiving they were higher in health state. Third, the elder who lives alone were lower in depression when their perceived subjective health state was higher even if they were lower in stratum consciousness. All these findings clearly indicate that the stratum consciousness and depression of elder who lives alone are moderated by their perceived health state of their own. Lastly, the implications, limitations, and suggestion for further research were discussed.

• 한국노년학
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• v.39 no.3
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• pp.451-465
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• 2019

This study focuses on the relationship between living alone and depression of the elderly, and explores the possibility that loneliness mediates the relationship between the living alone and the level of depression in Korean Elderly. The sample of the study consists of 1000 elderly aged 65 and above living in Chuncheon. The data is analyzed with the path analysis method with OLS regression method. The main results of this study are as follows. First, the level of loneliness showed a significant difference according to whether they were living alone. The reason for the difference was that the elderly living alone had less intimate relationship comparing with the elderly living with others and did not feel that they had the sense of belonging or intimate relationship with others. Second, it was confirmed that controlling the loneliness, the living alone showed no direct relationship with depression, but it's indirect effect through loneliness was significant.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.14 no.7
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• pp.251-258
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• 2016

This study was to identify the relationships between activities of daily living(ADL) and stress by health characteristics in elderly living alone. A total of 260 subjects were selected through convenient sampling. Data were collected with a self-reported questionnaire from October 20 to November 20, 2014. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA, Pearson Correlation Coefficients. Differences in ADL and stress according to health characteristics were as follows. ADL were significantly different according to problem of dietary habits. drinking, unsuitable health care, management groups. Stress were significantly different according to stress and availability and drug abuse. There was a negative correlation between ADL and stress. The findings of this study may be useful in understanding the health status of elderly living alone and developing more specific programs about ADL and stress control. Getting older, with the change in weight and chronic diseases, as the elderly living alone are indisposed with ADL, the applicatiom of physical activity programs and a stress management strategy is required.

• 한국노년학
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.93-108
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• 2019

The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of absolute / relative poverty on the life satisfaction focusing on mediation effect of subjective social status by type of elderly residents. In order to analyze the distinct characteristics of the elderly, analysis was conducted with 3,327 the elderly living together and 668 the elderly living alone using 'Korean Longitudinal Study of Ageing(KLoSA)' from 3rd to 5th wave data provided by the Korea Employment Information Service. The main analysis results are as follows. First, each poverty rate for the elderly living together accounted for 43.5 percent and 51.4 percent, while 63.8 percent and 77.2 percent for the elderly living alone respectively. Second, life satisfaction was higher among the elderly living together than living alone, However, life satisfaction was not related to condition of poverty among the elderly living alone. Third, absolute / relative poverty were associated with life satisfaction of the elderly living together, and subjective social status had a mediating effect. However, relative poverty was not related to life satisfaction among the elderly living alone, which indicated that it needs to support not only the financial approach to overcome absolute poverty but also the multi-dimensional poverty perspective in the intervention of the elderly living alone Based on the results, the study suggested to make a tool to measure of poverty using multi-dimensional poverty indicators.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.520-526
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• 2020

This study aimed to address the effect of poverty on depression and self-rated health in older adults living alone in Korea. In addition, this study identified the mediating effect of social participation on the poverty-depression and poverty-self-rated health relationships. The researcher conducted a secondary data analysis using the 6th wave of the Korean Longitudinal Study on Aging. The final sample was 1,093 older adults living alone. Using structural equation modeling, standardized coefficients of each path were analyzed. Then, the statistical significance of the mediating effect of social participation was addressed via analyzing direct, indirect, and total effects. Results show that older adults under poverty were more depressed and had a lower level of self-rated health than their counterparts. Moreover, frequent participation in religious gatherings, social gatherings, and leisure activities decreased depression in older adults living alone. Moreover, religious gatherings, social gatherings, and alumni meetings were positively related to self-rated health om older adults living alone. Significant mediating effects appeared in poverty-social gathering-depression, poverty-social gathering-self-rated health, and poverty-alumni meeting-self-rated health relationships. Based on the results, the researcher also discussed implications for social work practice.

• 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.

• 한국노년학
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• v.41 no.1
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• pp.25-48
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• 2021

This study intended to examine the willingness to use as well as necessary functions for ICT-based care assistance devices in older adults living alone. A total of 241 older adults living alone from a city participated in the study. Study results show that many older adults living alone are willing to use ICT-based care assistance devices at their home and the functions of care assistance devices that they perceived as necessary were diverse. In addition, there were differences in perception of functional necessity by socio-demographics and medical and functional characteristics of older adults living alone. In particular, there were significant differences in the functions perceived as necessary according to the presence of osteoporosis, depression, insomnia, and limitations in daily activities. Our study findings suggest that the functions of ICT-based care devices should be developed in various ways in order to help healthy aging in place. Findings also imply that it is necessary to provide individualized services and customized care assistance devices according to individual's medical and functional characteristics and needs.

• Journal of Convergence for Information Technology
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• v.11 no.12
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• pp.49-58
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• 2021

This study examined the effects of antecedent variables on life satisfaction of elderly people who live alone and who live with others by comparing the levels of depression, self-esteem, and life satisfaction. Using the 15th data of the Korean Welfare Panel held in 2020, independent sample t-test and hierarchical regression analysis were conducted. Elderly people who live alone had a high sense of depression, low self-esteem, and low life satisfaction. For both of them, the older the age and the higher the income level, the higher the life satisfaction. The regression model, which added depression and self-esteem, had a significant effect on both of them, but the effect of self-esteem was higher (𝛽=.40, .41) than that of depression (𝛽=-.28, -.29). The effects of depression and self-esteem on life satisfaction were higher in elderly people who live alone (R²=.409) than in elderly people who live with others (R²=.398). Based on the research results, this study suggested appropriate policies and practice directions to enhance self-esteem and improve life satisfaction of elderly people who live alone.

• 한국노년학
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• v.41 no.1
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• pp.169-185
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• 2021

This study investigated whether the increased Basic Pension amount in 2014 affect the level of depression of recipients and whether the effect differs according to three groups by household type(living-alone male, living-alone female, and couple households). Data from two waves of the Korean Longitudinal Study of Ageing(KLoSA) in 2012 (before the introduction of the Basic Pension) and 2016 (after the introduction of the Basic Pension), the elderly aged 65 years or older as of 2012 and the recipients of the basic pension in 2016 (N=2,277) were analyzed. Using the statistical package SPSS 25, mean comparison and multiple regression analyses were implemented. The results confirmed that the level of depression in female elderly living alone and married couples significantly decreased after the introduction of the Basic Pension, while there was no significant change in the level of depression in male elderly living alone. As results of regression analysis in the whole sample, the increased Basic Pension amount had an effect on the depression level of recipients in 2016, the higher the Basic Pension increase, the lower the depression level. Also, the regression analyses among the three groups by household type found that the significant effect of raising the basic pension on depression was reported only in elderly women living alone. Based on the main results of this study, implications were presented.

• Journal of Industrial Convergence
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.149-162
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• 2024

This study is a longitudinal study of female older adults living alone, one of the most vulnerable groups in our society, to determine how their depression changes over time and what factors affect their depression. At the same time, considering that there is a large difference in age among the same older adults, this study divided the female older adults into the young-old and the old-old to see how the predictors of depression in each group differ from each other. The main findings are as follows First, depression among female older adults living alone appears to have a declining pattern over time. In the conditional model, factors affecting the initial level of the depression trajectory among women living alone were found to be associated with lower initial depression values among those living in metropolitan areas rather than non-metropolitan areas, better subjective health, and those who did not exercise. Next, we examined the factors affecting rate of change (slope) in depression among female living alone older adults and found that the higher the age, the larger the metropolitan area, the better the subjective health, the less socializing, and the more socializing, the greater the decrease in depression level. Finally, there were some differences in the pathways affecting the initial value and slope of depression among female older adults living alone between the early and late older adults. Specifically, the higher the initial level of participation in social activities, the greater the change in depression among the late older adults, while there was no significant relationship among the early older adults. In the early older adults, better initial subjective health was associated with a larger change in depression than in the late older adults. Only in the late older adults did those who regularly exercised in the early years have higher initial depression values than those who did not. Based on the results of the above analyses, suggestions were made to reduce depression among female older adults living alone.