• 한국노년학
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.399-414
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• 2017

Although previous studies have found that social participation activities are related to older people's life satisfaction and health status, the rate of social participation activities among older people is still low. The current study examined the relationship between age identity and social participation activities among older people and the extent to which this relationship differs by gender. Secondary data from the Survey of Living Conditions of Korean Older Persons were used to test the research hypothesis. Hierarchical multiple regression models were tested using a nationally representative sample of 10,451 community-dwelling older persons aged 65 and above. Older people who have older age identity were less likely to involve in social participation activities than those who have younger age identity. However, this relationship was only significant for older women. The findings suggest the need for attention to age identity and gender differences when promoting social participation activities.

• 한국노년학
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.669-686
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• 2017

The purpose of this study is to investigate types of neighborhood environments and to verify whether the types of neighborhood environments are directly related to life satisfaction of older adults. To achieve this goal, I used'2014 National Survey on Older Koreans' data which surveyed the older adults aged 65 and over living in the community and a total of 10,281 respondents were analyzed. To determine the types of neighborhood environment, the time taken by walking from community organizations or places such as grocery stores, medical centers, administrative agencies, welfare centers, public transportation was used as an neighborhood environment indicators. As a results, there were six types of neighborhood environment: a leisure-welfare walk-limited type(20.3%), a leisure-welfare long-distance type(15.5%), a balanced proximity type(7.8%), a store-traffic type(35.8%), a traffic proximity type(10.1%), and a marginalized area type(11.3%). Compared to the balanced proximity type, older adults living in a store-traffic type and a marginalized area type were more likely to have negative life satisfaction. older adults who have higher life satisfaction were more likely to be female, more educated, get higher household income, and have a spouses or partner. Moreover, the better the health conditions, the higher the frequency of contact with children, siblings, friends and neighbors, the higher the satisfaction of life. Finding from the study highlight the importance of neighborhood environment in late life and provide implications for building age-friendly community.

• 한국노년학
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.835-852
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• 2017

The purpose of this study was to examine the moderating effects of social support on material hardship of low-income elderly people that have been excluded from the National Basic Livelihood Security System. For this research, data of 255 persons aged 65 and over were collected using a survey conducted in 2014 by the National Human Rights Commission of Korea on the minimum living cost of low-income household. Data analysis was performed through descriptive analysis, correlation analysis, and multiple regression analysis with STATA13. According to the results, the average level of material hardship in low-income elderly people was 1.45 out of 6, with the most hardship shown in heating and health care. The results of multiple regression analysis showed that when low-income elderly people became excluded from the system, they suffered more than the recipients. They also showed that the social support system of low-income elderly people brought a negative impact on their material hardship when they were connected by the strong social support system. In other words, social support system reduced their material hardship caused by exclusion. Based on the results, this study suggests some practical and political means to reduce material hardship of low-income elderly people.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.14 no.11
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• pp.236-248
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• 2014

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of human, social and cultural capital and ecological variables on volunteering among older adults. In this study, three variables of education, income and physical health were examined as human capital factors, two variables of formal and informal interaction as social capital factors, three variables of religion, cultural organization participation and quality of life as cultural capital factors, and three variables of existence of spouse, housing tenure and residence area as ecological factors. In addition, two variables of volunteering participation and continuous volunteering participation intention were considered as dependent variables. For this study, "Senior Job Replacement Project Participants" data collected by the Korea Labor Force Development Institute for the Aged were used and analyzed employing logistic regression analysis technique. This study found that three human capital variables(education, income, physical health) had positive effects on volunteering participation and continuous participation intention among older adults; of the two social capital variables, informal interaction had a positive effect on both volunteering participation and continuous participation intention, whereas formal interaction had a positive effect only on continuous participation intention; three cultural capital variables(religion, cultural organization participation, quality of life) had positive effects on both volunteering participation and continuous participation intention; and of three ecological variables, housing tenure and residence area had positive effects on volunteering participation and continuous participation intention, whereas existence of spouse had no significant effects on dependent variables.

• 한국노년학
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.467-480
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• 2018

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between the cell phone utilization and depression among the Korean elderly living alone using '2014 Korean National Survey on Older Adults. A total of 2,493 survey data of the elders living alone 65 years or more was included in the analysis. The degree of the cell phone utilization were categorized into (1) No cell phone, (2) Only phone calls, (3) Phone calls and text messages, and (4) Searching news and information through the internet surfing. The results showed that 81.5% elderly living alone had a cell phone. The 'no cell phone' group was 19.5% while 'information search' group was 3.5% among the elderly living alone and has more probability of depression than 'information search' group (OR=0.064, 95% CI=0.018-0.227), which indicates that as elders living alone utilize their cell phone more, the probability of the depression decreased. This result implies that elders living alone who utilize their cell phone more are engaged in social interaction more and this can lead to decrease in depression.

• 한국노년학
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.581-594
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• 2016

This study aims to observe the effect of age friendliness of cities on life satisfaction and to suggest ways to improve quality of life of older people. The secondary data sets were used in this study, which were '2014 Survey of Living Conditions and Welfare Needs of Korean Older People.' It's a nationwide data collected by the Korean Institute of Health and Social Affairs. A multilevel analysis model was used to analyze the data because the level of age friendliness has a hierarchical data structure. Results showed as follows: First, life satisfaction of older adults is affected by the level of age-friendliness of cities in which they live. Second, on the personal level, older people showed low life satisfaction when they are more older and have more chronic diseases and more depressed. On the contrary, life satisfaction of older adults increased when they have higher education and income. Third, on the city level, older people showed higher life satisfaction when they live in high employment rate area and participation rate of lifelong education. Cautions should be placed when interpret the result because the variables that represent the characteristics of age friendless of cities were constituted arbitrary. Based on the results, suggestions for improving the city environment age-friendly and implications for social welfare practice were provided.

• 한국노년학
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.611-632
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• 2016

Solutions for elderly health issues need to be found that take into account not only a medical perspective, but also interactions with social conditions such as socioeconomic status. With this in mind, this study aims to understand how socioeconomic status leads to health inequalities for the elderly. Specifically, this study investigates the mediating effects of socioeconomic status(income and education levels), health activities as an intermediary of the three dimensions of physical health(medical health, functional health, subjective health), accessibility of medical facilities, social participation, and social network. To test the research model, a secondary data analysis was conducted on the 2014 National Survey of Senior Citizens. The participants of the study were 10,451 elderly men and women aged 65 and above. To test the mediated model, hierarchical multiple regression analysis was conducted following the procedures suggested by Baron and Kenny(1986). In addition, a Sobel test was conducted to test the mediated model's significance. According to the analysis, the effects of income and educational levels on the health of the elderly were not the same. Additionally, different results were found depending on health dimensions. However, the overall direction of the results showed that the socioeconomic status of the elderly creates health disparities, and health behaviors, accessibility of medical facilities, social participation, and social network had significant mediation effects between socioeconomic status and physical health. Study findings especially worth noting are as follows: education was shown to have a stronger effect on health than income; effects of social integration factors such as social participation were highlighted; and significant mediating effects on the accessibility of medical facilities remained even after taking residential area into account. Results of this study shed light on health inequality mechanisms due to socioeconomic conditions and the need to find alternatives to alleviate these problems.

• Korean Journal of Occupational Health Nursing
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.197-207
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• 2014

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the status and characteristics of visiting nurses' management for elders with cognitive impairment living in a community focused on health centers in a metropolitan city and five medium-sized cities. Methods: Data were collected from 47 visiting nurses working in a metropolitan city and 47 visiting nurses working in five medium-sized cities from November to December 2012. Results: There were no statistically significant differences in knowledge, attitudes, and nursing behaviors of cognitive impairment between two groups (F=2.13, p=.148; F=3.64, p=.060; F=0.28, p=.595). Among the elders referred to a physician in a metropolitan city by visiting nurses, 42.4% were diagnosed as mild cognitive impairment and 15.2% were diagnosed as severe dementia. The major intervention programs which visiting nurses currently applied for elders were medication and exercise intervention programs, and the intervention programs which they would want to apply in the future were playing, music and recall intervention programs. Conclusion: The cognitive impairment screening test can be done effectively by visiting nurses. This study also suggests to develop various kinds of intervention programs to improve cognitive function for elders living in a community.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.489-499
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• 2016

The purpose of this study is to attempt to analyze factors affecting elderly persons' life-sustaining treatment preferences, focusing on ego integrity trait. This study used data from Elderly Profiles and Welfare Needs of the Elderly Persons(2014). The analysis sample was 10,451 cases. 86.4 percent of the sample responded that they disagree with life-sustaining treatment. Analysis results are as follows: being female(${\beta}=-.045$, p<.001), the younger(${\beta}=-.024$, p<.05), having more education years(${\beta}=.027$, p<.05), higher satisfaction of life(${\beta}=.022$, p<.05), responding that they had thought about their own funeral(${\beta}=.032$, p<.01), responding that they had used senior centers over the last one year(${\beta}=-.038$, p<.01) are related to disapproval of life sustaining treatment. This research shows that ego integrity trait such as satisfaction of life, or accepting and preparing one's own death, is related to disapproval of life-sustaining treatment.

• Journal of dental hygiene science
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.569-576
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• 2015

The aim of this study was to assess the oral health knowledge, attitude and behavior among geriatric care workers in long-term care facilities. A self-administered questionnaire was obtained from 212 geriatric care workers attending a professional education program of 2014 dementia pilot project. The questionnaire consisted of 4 parts of the training experience (2 items), knowledge (16 items), attitude (13 items), and behavior (4 items) on oral health care. Collected data were analyzed by frequency analysis, independent t-test, and one-way ANOVA using SPSS Statistics ver. 20.0. The percentage of educational experience on oral care was 27.9% and most respondents answered that they have received the education about denture cleaning (98.3%) and brushing method (91.4%). The average knowledge score was $10.88{\pm}1.70$, and respondents showed high-level agreement in 8 of the 10 items in attitude questions. They revealed difficulties in providing oral care to the elderly people because of their lack of knowledge. The deficiencies of knowledge about oral care would have a decisive effect on not only oral and general health, but also quality of life of the elderly people. Therefore, it is required to develop professional oral care training programs for geriatric care workers and support systems should be legalized.