• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.46-55
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• 2024

Objective: This study was conducted to provide basic data for the establishment of effective health policies for the unmet medical experience that may occur among the elderly depending on whether they live in a singleperson household or not. Methodology: This study used data from the 8th National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2019-2020) and excluded cases with missing values in variables for the total number of respondent participants of 15,469. Finally, 2,850 subjects aged 65 or older were selected for final analysis. This study examined the relationship between experiences of unmet medical needs, attempting to confirm the relationship between single-person households and unmet medical needs through subgroup analysis considering gender, age, and household income. Results: According to the results, in the case of single-person households, the odds ratio (OR) for unmet medical needs was significantly higher at 1.60 times (95% CI: 1.16-2.21). Upon conducting subgroup analyses for gender, age, and household income quintiles, the OR was significantly higher at 2.24 times (95% CI: 1.14-4.41) for males and 1.48 times (95% CI: 1.02-2.14) for females, statistically significant in both cases. For individuals aged 65-69, the OR was significantly higher at 1.90 times (95% CI: 1.04-3.47), but for those aged 70-74 and over 75, it was not statistically significant. In the case of households with 'low' income, the OR was higher at 1.62 times (95% CI: 1.16-2.26), and for 'middle' income, it was significantly higher at 3.21 times (95% CI: 1.08-9.51). Conclusion: This study confirmed that the experience of unmet medical care is high among men who make up single-person households and low-income seniors. Therefore, this study suggests that policies to expand medical services and support welfare for single-person households should be established to resolve these problems, showing that health policies that take into account individual and regional characteristics are needed to improve medical accessibility for single-person households.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.57-65
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• 2021

Background: The objective of this study was to elucidate the relationships musculoskeletal pains with combined vulnerability in terms of age, gender, and employment status Methods: The fifth European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS) in 2010 (43,816 participants aged 15 years and over) analyzed for European employees and the third Korean Working Conditions Survey (KWCS) in 2011 (50,032 participants aged 15 years and older) analyzed for Korean employees. In this study, three well known vulnerable factors to musculoskeletal pains (older age, female gender, and precarious employment status) were combined and defined as combined vulnerability. Associations of musculoskeletal pains with combined vulnerability were assessed with prevalence ratios (PRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) estimated by Poisson regression models with robust estimates of variance. Results: The prevalences of musculoskeletal pains were lower but the absolute and relative differences between combined vulnerabilities were higher among Korean employees compared with the European employees. Furthermore, the increased risk of having musculoskeletal pains according to combined vulnerability was modestly explained by socioeconomic factors and exposure to ergonomic risk factors, especially in Republic of Korea. Conclusions: The results of this study showed that the labor market may be more unfavorable for female and elderly workers in Republic of Korea. Any prevention strategies to ward off musculoskeletal pains, therefore, should be found and implemented to mitigate or buffer against the most vulnerable work population, older, female, and precarious employment status, in Republic of Korea.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.50 no.2
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• pp.191-199
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• 2020

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to compare sociodemographic characteristics of a normal cognitive group and mild cognitive impairment group, and establish prediction models of Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI). Methods: This study was a secondary data analysis research using data from "the 4th Korea Longitudinal Study of Ageing" of the Korea Employment Information Service. A total of 6,405 individuals, including 1,329 individuals with MCI and 5,076 individuals with normal cognitive abilities, were part of the study. Based on the panel survey items, the research used 28 variables. The methods of analysis included a χ²-test, logistic regression analysis, decision tree analysis, predicted error rate, and an ROC curve calculated using SPSS 23.0 and SAS 13.2. Results: In the MCI group, the mean age was 71.4 and 65.8% of the participants was women. There were statistically significant differences in gender, age, and education in both groups. Predictors of MCI determined by using a logistic regression analysis were gender, age, education, instrumental activity of daily living (IADL), perceived health status, participation group, cultural activities, and life satisfaction. Decision tree analysis of predictors of MCI identified education, age, life satisfaction, and IADL as predictors. Conclusion: The accuracy of logistic regression model for MCI is slightly higher than that of decision tree model. The implementation of the prediction model for MCI established in this study may be utilized to identify middle-aged and elderly people with risks of MCI. Therefore, this study may contribute to the prevention and reduction of dementia.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.53 no.2
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• pp.155-174
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• 2020

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of nutrient intake and dietary diversity score (DDS) on osteoporosis after controlling for sex, age, socioeconomic level, drinking, smoking, physical activity, and body mass index (BMI) as mediators using the 2015-2017 Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES) data. Methods: This study was focused on the age group of 50s and older by using the 2015-2017 KNHANES data. Subjects diagnosed with osteoporosis were classified as the osteoporosis group, and the other subjects were classified as the normal group. Logistic regression was used to assess the association between nutrient intake and DDS after controlling for mediators. Results: The risk of osteoporosis was 2.38 times lower in the 50-65 age group than in the 75 years and older group. The mediators affecting the incidence of osteoporosis by age group were sex, age, household income level, and education level in the 50-64 age group; sex, education level, drinking, and BMI in the 65-74 age group; and sex, age, current smoking, drinking, BMI, and energy intake in the 75 years and older group. The effect of nutrient intake on osteoporosis, with the exception of vitamin B1, was fully mediated by these mediators. The effect of vitamin B1 was partially mediated by mediators in the age group of 65-74 years, and vitamin B1 was effective for preventing the risk of osteoporosis by 25% when consumed over EAR. The effect of DDS was partially mediated in the age group of 75 years and older, and DDS of 2 or less increased the risk of osteoporosis by 2.59 times. Conclusion: As a result of this study, it is necessary to recommend the balanced intake of various foods including grains, meat·fish·legumes, vegetables, fruits, and dairy products as dietary guidelines for the prevention of osteoporosis and promotion of bone health in the elderly.

• Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.41-51
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• 2020

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of oral health behaviors of patients with hypertension and diabetic patients on the number of remaining teeth in Korean adults over 45 years of age, furthermore, we also aimed to develop oral health care programs and health promotion for patients with hypertension and diabetes. Methods: Altogether, 1,526 subjects with hypertension and diabetes from the 6th Korean National Health and Nutrition Survey (2013-2015) were analyzed. Results: A multiple logistic regression analysis was performed to determine the effects of oral health behavior and periodontal disease on residual teeth in patients with hypertension and diabetes after adjusting for age. We found 1.53 times the risk of having less than 20 remaining teeth in the group of brushing more than 3 times a day (95% CI: 1.00,2.35, p<0.001), 2.27 times (95% CI: 1.23-4.17, p<0.05) in the group not using the dental floss group 0.05), compared to the group undergoing regular dental check-up (95% CI: 0.93-1.85, p>0.05), compared to the non-smoking group 0.77 times (95% CI: 0.51-1.14, p>0.05), 1.33 times (95% CI: 0.98-1.80, p>0.05) in the drinking group compared to the non-drinking group, in the periodontal disease group, the risk of having less than 20 remaining teeth was 2.19 times higher (95% CI: 1.48-3.24, p>0.001) than in the normal group. Conclusions: As a super-aging society, develops in Korea, the prevalence of hypertension and diabetes will increase gradually. Therefore, an oral health policy should be implemented at the national level for the prevention and treatment of periodontal disease as well as the management of oral health the elderly.

• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.67-77
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• 2020

Background: As of 2016, average Koreans sleep 7 hours and 42 minutes, the lowest figure among Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development(OECD) countries, and the number of people with sleep disorders reached 561,000. Accordingly, the government has promoted the provision of 'Multiple Sleep Test' to strengthen the diagnosis service for patients with 'sleep disorder' in july 2018. As a result, healthcare costs for patients with sleep disorder is on the rise every year. In this study, we utilized 'Appropriate Sleep' criteria of United States's National Sleep Foundation(NSF) then investigated Korean's sleep pertinence using ｢7th National Health and Nutrition Survey for 2016-2018」 by different occupational type, demographic characteristics, socio-economic characteristics, and health behaviors. Methods: We performed descriptive analysis to examine differences of sleep appropriateness by various sample characteristics. Multivariate logistic regression models were used to examine sleep appropriateness by occupational type and other variables. We also analyzed subgroup models to investigate. Results: As a result, a total of 1,948 (18.37%) study subjects experienced in-appropriate sleep. Results of the Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that blue color group had a higher odds ratio (OR) for experiencing in-appropriate sleep (OR=1.179). In addition, the odds ratio of experienced in-appropriate sleep among the elderly aged 70 and over was 2.698, and the odds ratio of the overstressed group was 1.299. Furthermore, sub-group analysis showed that blue color job of female(Or=1.334), high school or below(OR=1.404), divorce/death/separation(OR=2.039), 25%ile-50%lie income group(OR=1.411) more likely experienced in-appropriate sleep. Conclusion: Growing sleep disorder patients and related health care costs are expected. Government should apply detailed 'total periodic sleep disorder management policy' including pre-consultation, examination, diagnosis, treatment, post-consultation, self-management especially to vulnerable population that this study found.

• 한국노년학
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• v.40 no.4
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• pp.729-746
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• 2020

For the development and better use of information and communication technology(ICT) for promoting health and quality of life in older people, it is important to understand personal factors associated with ICT use. The aims of this study were to describe the pattern of ICT use according to health characteristics of elderly and to investigate significant factors related to ICT use among three age groups. The data of 2017 National Survey of Older Koreans was used for analysis and 10,058 of older adults aged 65 and over were included for study participants. As results, first, the young old(65~74) used more functions of ICT than the middle-old(75~84) and the old-old(85 and over). Second, ICT was more used among older people with good conditions in chronic disease, subjective health, cognition, depression, vision, hearing, walking and IADL. Third, higher prevalence of ICT use was significantly associated with age, education, household income, subjective health, depression, cognitive function, vision limitation and walking limitation. Fourth, factors influencing the use of ICT were a little different among three age groups. For the young-old(65~74), subjective health, depression, cognitive decline, walking limitation, and IADL disability were significant factors affecting on ICT use. For the middle-old(75-84), subjective health, depression, cognitive decline, vision, hearing, and walking limitation were related with their ICT use. For the old-old(85 and over), only cognitive function and depression were associated with their ICT use. Based on these results, this study suggested the need to consider multiple health conditions for developing and using ICT for older adults.