• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.326-333
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• 2006

Purpose: This study was attempted to investigate the relationship between the satisfaction of volunteering and the meaning in life of the elderly. Method: The subjects were 176 who had been volunteering in 7 general hospitals. in a metropolitan city, Korea. The data were gathered throughout August 2004. For measuring the satisfaction of volunteering, Kwon(1999) was modified and used, and for the meaning in life, Choi et al.(2003) was used. Result: Mean of the volunteering satisfaction was 3.00(Maximum, 4.00) and the highest domain was Social Contact and the lowest was Social Exchange. Mean of meaning in life was 3.02 (Maximum, 4.00) and the highest score was Family love and the lowest was Self Awareness & Self-Acceptance. Volunteering satisfaction was significantly different in age, religion, number of children and voluntary service time, and the meaning in life was different in religion, number of children, subjective health condition, subjective family relationship, and voluntary service time. Conclusion: There was positive correlation between volunteering satisfaction and meaning in life (r=.69 p=.000). According to the result, the satisfaction of volunteering could be make better meaning in life of the elderly. In order to increase the meaning in life and to improve volunteering satisfaction of the elderly, various social and personal efforts to participate in social service are would be adopted.

• Human Ecology Research
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• v.60 no.2
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• pp.163-176
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• 2022

The purpose of this study is to understand the changes in the daily life and quality of life of the elderly due to the spread of COVID-19. This study attempted to supplement the limitations of quantitative analysis by performing both quantitative and qualitative analysis. A large-scale representative data, the Elderly Survey 2017 and 2020, were analyzed, and in-depth interviews were conducted with a total of 16 elderly people in Gwangju and Seoul. As a result, it was found that the overall quality of life was positively changed compared to before Corona. The frequency of contact and visits with family members decreased whereas the time spent watching TV increased. The elderly's adaptation to daily life has a series of processes since the first outbreak of COVID-19. At the beginning of the outbreak, there were fear, anxiety, and depression due to isolation, but gradually made efforts to adapt to the new situation. They reported that they realized the importance of human relationships, especially spouses, in a crisis situation and that there were some positive aspects as well. Finally, in all these results a difference was found between single-person households and multi-person households. Through the above research results, academic and policy measures were discussed.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.1-9
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• 2016

Objectives: Personal exposure to air pollution is affected by contact over time and by location. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between personal exposure to $PM_{2.5}$ and the time-activity patterns of the elderly in urban and rural areas. Methods: A total of 44 elderly participants were recruited for a 24-hour $PM_{2.5}$ personal exposure measurement. Twenty-four were from Seoul (urban area) and 20 were from Asan (rural area). Energy expenditure and spatiotemporal positioning were monitored through $PM_{2.5}$ measurement. Spearman correlation analysis was conducted to determine the relationship between $PM_{2.5}$ and time-activity pattern. Results: Daily average $PM_{2.5}$ personal exposures were $19.1{\pm}9.7{\mu}g/m^3$ in Seoul and $29.1{\pm}16.9{\mu}g/m^3$ in Asan. Although outdoor exposure was higher in Seoul than in Asan, residential indoor exposure was higher in Asan than in Seoul. Higher $PM_{2.5}$ personal exposure in Asan could be explained by longer time in residential indoor environments and higher indoor $PM_{2.5}$ concentrations. Seoul elderly had higher energy expenditure, which may be due to the use of mass transportation. Conclusion: Personal exposure to $PM_{2.5}$ was higher among Asan elderly than Seoul elderly because of high residential indoor concentrations and longer residential time. Lack of energy spent and higher personal exposure to $PM_{2.5}$ might have led to higher risk among the Asan elderly.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.27-33
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• 2011

Recently in Korea, the percentage of the population that is elderly has been increasing rapidly because of lower national birthrates, improvements of medical technologies and techniques, and improved diet. The trend toward an aging population has exceeded the capabilities of the existent Korean welfare system and has caused economic problems such as a lack of new jobs. The government's policies in welfare and infrastructure are insufficient. The fire-fighting administration provides special services for the elderly, including "silver ambulances." In addition, using modem technology, the administration is working on emergency contact devices for the elderly in case of accidents. The aim of this paper is to analyze the services provided for the elderly and to examine improved solutions for the fire-fighting administration.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Physical Medicine
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.73-82
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• 2017

PURPOSE: Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation (PNF) has been shown to improve body function and activity/participation in people with functional dysfunctions. This study evaluates if active exercise using theraband in PNF pattern may induce similar benefits as exercise using manual PNF pattern performed by physiotherapists on promoting mobility, balance and fear of fall in community-dwelling elderly. METHODS: Twenty-three community-dwelling elderly with independent activities of daily living were recruited and randomly allocated into either PNF group - exercise in PNF pattern by trained physiotherapists or Theraband-PNF (T-PNF) group - exercise using theraband in PNF pattern, for an hour, twice weekly for 4 weeks. Functional outcomes such as Timed Up and Go test, Elderly Mobility Scale, Berg balance scale, functional reach and subjective measures including fear of fall (FOF) scale, bodily pain in visual analogue scale were measured pre and post-program. RESULTS: Twenty-one participants completed the program. PNF group demonstrated significant within-group improvements in all subjective measures and objective measures. Similar within-group improvements were demonstrated in all outcome measures except FOFS in T-PNF group. However, no between-group differences were found in any of the outcome measures. CONCLUSION: Comparable improvements in functional outcomes in community dwelling elderly were demonstrated in both groups. As manual PNF exercise traditionally need clinicians' contact and feedback on patient which limit the training to be carried out extensively in community setting. The current findings suggest that exercise using theraband in PNF pattern is feasible to be adopted as self-practice exercise for community-dwelling elderly to induce beneficial effects on functional outcomes.

• Journal of Korean Medical Science
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• v.33 no.51
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• pp.332.1-332.8
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• 2018

Background: The trend of aging society is occurring globally, and with it, one of the health problems that is emerging is frailty. Efforts are being made to account for the increasing prevalence of frailty, and various modifiable factors are being considered in regards to frailty. Because social contact has shown beneficial effects in terms of health in previous studies, it is increasingly being considered in relation to frailty. The purpose of this study was to assess the association of different types of social contact with frailty status. Methods: A total of 1,200 Korean elders aged 70-84 years old were included in the study. Using Fried's Cardiovascular Health Study index to categorize the frailty status, the relationship between frailty status and frequency of contact (i.e., with family members, friends, or neighbors) was analyzed using multinomial logistic regression accounting for confounders. Results: Adjusting for all covariates, frequency of contact with friends was the most statistically significant. Less frequent contact was associated with a significantly higher odds of pre-frailty: monthly (odds ratio [OR], 2.02; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.27-3.20), and rarely (OR, 1.87; 95% CI, 1.17-2.99), with daily contact group as reference. Also, those contacting friends monthly (OR, 5.04; 95% CI, 2.29-11.08) or rarely (OR, 3.23; 95% CI, 1.58-6.61) were more likely to be frail compared to the daily group. Conclusion: Frequency of social contact, especially with friends, is strongly associated with frailty.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.12 no.12
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• pp.5570-5577
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• 2011

This study was carried out to analyse the differences in the attitudes toward the elderly according to the characteristics of women immigrants, and identify the variables to predict the attitudes toward the elderly. The participants were 592 women immigrants sampled from six cities and one county. The major results of the study were as follows. Firstly, there were significant differences in the attitudes toward the elderly depending on age, residential area, spouse's educational level, family income, hope to support homeland's parents, and contact with homeland's family. Secondly, the characteristics related with Korean family explained the largest portion of the attitudes toward the elderly, and predictors of the attitudes were age, residential area, family income, and hope to support homeland's parents.

• Journal of muscle and joint health
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.174-182
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• 2021

Purpose: This study is a secondary data analysis study to identify factors related to the quality of life of people aged 65 y or older, according household type. Methods: In 2019, the study extracted the data from the elderly participants (65 y of age or older) from G province Community Health Survey. The data were compiled and analyzed in a composite sample. Results: The quality of life was lowest among single people, grandparents-grandchildren (F=39.88, p<.001). Variables that significantly influenced quality of life in single-person households were basic security(β=-.03, p=.002), high-risk drinking (β=.04, p=.002), number of day to walk (β=.01, p<.001), diabetes mellitus (β=-.03, p<.001), depression (β=-.02, p<.001), and contact frequency (β=.00, p<.001). Variables that significantly influenced grandparents-grandchildren households were basic security (β=.03, p<.001), smoking(β=-.02, p<.001), number of day to walk (β=.00, p<.001), hypertension (β=-.01, p=.009), diabetes mellitus (β=-.04, p<.001), cognitive impairment (β=-.02, p<.001), depression(β=-.02, p<.001), contact frequency (β=.01, p<.001), and neighborhood trust (β=.02, p<.001). Conclusion: In this study, there were differences in health-related quality of life for each type of household, and various support systems are needed in their social networks to suit their characteristics.

• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
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• v.41 no.4
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• pp.57-69
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• 2003

This study focused on individual differences in social support among older adults. The purposes of this study were to investigate sex and age group differences in social support and to examine the effects of intergenerational social support on life satisfaction among the rural elderly. Data were from 545 elderly over 60 years of age living separately from adult children in the rural area. With regard to sex differences in support exchanges, no significant differences were found in support-giving and support-receiving. Men reported giving more financial support to children than women, while women reported receiving more financial support from children than men. With regard to age group differences in support exchanges, there was less support-giving in older age group. Older parents in their 60s reported giving more financial, instrumental, and emotional support and receiving less financial support than the group of age 70＋ Regression analyses showed that life satisfaction of both men and women was affected by support size and the frequency of contact with children. Giving financial and instrumental support was significantly associated with life satisfaction of men, but giving and receiving each type of social support had no effects on life satisfaction of women. Life satisfaction of parents in their 60s was found to be positively associated with support size, giving financial support and receiving emotional support, and negatively associated with giving instrumental support. In the group of age 70＋, the frequency of contact with adult children and giving financial support had positive influences on life satisfaction.

• Journal of the Korean Society for information Management
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.259-281
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• 2010

The purpose of the study is to prove the effectiveness of the bibliotherapy in decreasing the stress among the elderly. A 4-week program was developed and provided in 2 types, group meeting and individual telephone contact, for the old over 60 years. A total of 121 participants completed the program offered at 16 institutions. Participants' stress perception and stress response were measured prior to the bibliotherapy and post-tests were followed. 17 hypotheses were tested statistically by t-test and ANOVA. The followings are the main results. Both types of the bibliotherapy are effective in decreasing the stress of the old. Group meeting program is more effective than individual contact program. There were no significant effectiveness difference among the groups divided by sex, age, and education level. Bibliotherapy effectiveness is differ among groups divided by the initial stress perception level. Obviously, bibliotherapy was more effective for the old in high stress level than those in low stress level. Based on the results, recommendations are suggested to promote the bibliotherapy program.