• Journal of the Korea Society of Computer and Information
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.39-46
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• 2024

In this paper, we propose a low-cost wearable device that can monitor the health status of the elderly living alone in real-time. As aging is accelerating, the elderly population is rapidly increasing, and the social isolation of the elderly living alone is causing physical and mental difficulties and the number of elderly people dying alone is increasing, becoming a social problem. In this study, we propose a belly band-type wearable device that can monitor the biometric information of elderly living alone. The proposed device transmits electromyogram, electrocardiogram, and body temperature information to a remote server through an Arduino-based sensor built into the abdominal band. Transmitted information can be monitored in a web environment in real-time, and it has the feature of enabling remote monitoring of a large number of subjects with a small amount of management manpower. The research results will contribute to improving the safety and welfare of seniors living alone by not only detecting lonely deaths in advance but also responding immediately to dangerous situations that may occur in daily life.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.139-144
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• 2019

The increase in the elderly population also increased the damage and deaths of the elderly drivers. However, studies on the severity and severity of the elderly driver are not actively conducted and the factors are unknown. In this study, I tried to find out the factors affecting the damage and severity of the elderly driver in the frontal collision and to utilize them additionally in the severity classification. Collision Deformation Classification (CDC) Code was used to check the extent of damage to the vehicle. Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS) was used to determine the injury parts and severity of injury, and the Injury Severity Score (ISS) to confirm the severity of the patient. The odds ratios of severe injury patients were found to be 7.381 in the subjects with 5 or more deformation extent and the ${\beta}$ value of the deformation extent was 0.453 in the analysis of the severity by linear regression analysis. Therefore, the degree of deformation extent of 5 or more can be suggested as a criterion that can be used additionally to the severity classification in the elderly driver.

• Journal of Korean Society of Transportation
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.155-162
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• 2010

Elderly pedestrians account for more than 30% of all deaths in traffic accident and the number of elderly-related traffic accidents are increasing every year. Considering Korea's quickly aging society, drastic measures must henceforth be taken. Taking notice of the elderly living in and moving around the provinces, this research focused on analyzing the characteristics of elderly pedistrians' traffic accidents on provincial roads and developing an Equivalent Property Damage Only (EPDO) model. The authors collected 720 traffic accident data points from the police agency and developed the EPDO model, weighted differently by light injury, severe injury, and death using Multiple Regression Analysis. As a result, the speed of vehicles is the most influential variable in EPDO, and the shape of the road is significant as well. Therefore, various policies should be established like improving the environmental factors of provincial roads, like expanding speed-reduction treatments and signage, and setting up detours around areas of high elderly concentration.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.32 no.8
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• pp.715-721
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• 1999

Background:The number of old patients receiving coronary artery bypass grafting(CABG) is increasing. With the more recent advances in operative techniques, the age at which CABG is indicated has also increased. This study evaluated the risk factors associated with the hospital mortality and the morbidity following CABG in elderly patients. Material and Method: Between March 1991 and June 1998, we retrospectively reviewed 45 consecutive patients aged 65 years or older who underwent CABG. We compared the data with the results of 179 patients under the age 65 years operated during the same period. Result: Mean age was 68${\pm}$1.41 years(range 65 to 74 years). Emergency surgery was required in 4, and elective surgery in 41 patients. The mean number of distal anastomosis per patient was 3.62 ${\pm}$0.81 and mean aortic cross-cramp time was 69.84${\pm}$18.5 minutes. Thirty patients had Canadian class III or IV preoperatively, but 43 patients had class I or II postoperatively. The left ventricular ejection fraction increased significantly from 54.23${\pm}$10.62% preoperatively to 58.14${\pm}$9.88% postoperatively(p<0.05). Postoperative complication was pneumonia in 2 patients, acute renal failure in 2 patients, sternal wound infection in 1 patient, and postoperative myocardial infarction in 1 patient. There were two postoperative deaths. The causes of deaths were low output syndrome in one patient, and sepsis due to pneumonia in the other patient. The hospital mortality was higher in the elderly group(4.4 versus 2.86%) but was not statistically significant(p>0.05). Incremental risk factors for hospital deaths in the elderly were emergent operation, preoperative PTCA, postoperative use of IABP and postoperative ARF(p<0.05). The duration of hospital stay after operation was significantly longer for the elderly group than the younger group(19.27${\pm}$12.51 vs 15.55${\pm}$6.99 days; p＜ 0.05). Follow-up was complete for 34 of the hospital survivors and ranged from 1 to 73 months(mean: 23.58${\pm}$19.56 months). There was no late mortality of cardiac origin. Conclusion: Age is an important factor in selecting optimal management for elderly patients with coronary compromise, but age alone should not dictate the choice of therapy. Coronary artery bypass surgery in the elderly is associated with acceptable early mortality and excellent long-term results.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.49 no.6
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• pp.362-371
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• 2023

Background: PM_2.5 pollution has been a persistent problem in South Korea, with concentrations consistently exceeding World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines. The aging of the population in the country further exacerbates the health impacts of PM_2.5 since older adults are more susceptible to the adverse effects of air pollution. Objectives: This study aims to evaluate how the health impact (premature death) due to long-term exposure to PM_2.5 in South Korea could change in the future according to the trend of change in the country's population structure. Methods: The study employs a relative risk function, which accounts for age-specific relative risks, to assess the changes in premature deaths by age and region at the average annual PM_2.5 concentration for 2022 and at PM_2.5 concentration improvement levels. Premature deaths were estimated using the Global Exposure Mortality Model (GEMM). Results: The findings indicate that the increase in premature deaths resulting from the projected population structure changes up to 2050 would significantly outweigh the health benefits (reduction in premature deaths) compared to 2012. This is primarily attributed to the rising number of premature deaths among the elderly due to population aging. Furthermore, the study suggests that the effectiveness of the current domestic PM_2.5 standard would be halved by 2050 due to the increasing impact of population aging on PM_2.5-related mortality. Conclusions: The study highlights the importance of considering trends in population structure when evaluating the health benefits of air pollution reduction measures. By comparing and evaluating the health benefits in reflection of changes in population structure to the predicted PM_2.5 concentration improvements at the provincial level, a more comprehensive assessment of regional air quality management strategies can be achieved.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.44 no.6
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• pp.384-391
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• 2023

Among the elderly, fatal injuries and deaths are significantly attributed to falls. Therefore, a pre-impact fall detection system is necessary for injury prevention. In this study, a robust threshold-based algorithm was proposed for pre-impact fall detection, reducing false positives in highly dynamic daily-living movements. The algorithm was validated using public datasets (KFall and FARSEEING) that include the real-world elderly fall. A 6-axis IMU sensor (Movella Dot, Movella, Netherlands) was attached to S2 of 20 healthy adults (aged 22.0±1.9years, height 164.9±5.9cm, weight 61.4±17.1kg) to measure 14 activities of daily living and 11 fall movements at a sampling frequency of 60Hz. A 5Hz low-pass filter was applied to the IMU data to remove high-frequency noise. Sum vector magnitude of acceleration and angular velocity, roll, pitch, and vertical velocity were extracted as feature vector. The proposed algorithm showed an accuracy 98.3%, a sensitivity 100%, a specificity 97.0%, and an average lead-time 311±99ms with our experimental data. When evaluated using the KFall public dataset, an accuracy in adult data improved to 99.5% compared to recent studies, and for the elderly data, a specificity of 100% was achieved. When evaluated using FARSEEING real-world elderly fall data without separate segmentation, it showed a sensitivity of 71.4% (5/7).

• YAKHAK HOEJI
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• v.51 no.5
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• pp.327-335
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• 2007

This study was to evaluate economic impact of a comprehensive pharmaceutical care intervention provided by community pharmacists on drug-related morbidity and mortality in the elderly population, in a societal perspective. Clinical outcomes of pharmaceutical care included compliance increase, inappropriate medication discontinuation, and subsequent drug-related morbidity and mortality reduction. Economic outcomes included cost savings from direct medical costs reduction such as medication and healthcare resource utilization. Input costs for pharmaceutical care included pharmacist time and computerized prescription review supporting program costs. Model parameters of outcomes were derived from published literatures, and costs were from literatures and health insurance statistical data in Korea. Annual costs and benefits were estimated in the year 2005. Current usual care and standardized pharmaceutical care required 0.3 and 2.0 hours per year respectively, for elderly outpatient using average 4.4 prescription drugs per visit and average annual frequency of 17.8 pharmacy visits. Comprehensive pharmaceutical care provided to overall elderly outpatients at community pharmacies would have cost of \74,994 mil. and benefit of \357,002 mil. per year. Benefit:cost ratio was 4.8:1 and net benefit was \282,008 mil/year. It was corresponded to net benefit of \73,816/year for individual elderly patient. In addition, pharmaceutical care was estimated to reduce 1,531 drug-related deaths/year. Conclusively this study, a first attempt in Korea to evaluate an economic value of pharmaceutical care at community pharmacies, proved that it was a cost-effective intervention having significant economic benefit.

• Journal of Home Health Care Nursing
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.264-274
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• 2017

Purpose: This study examined the current state of death preparedness and factors related to the death preparedness among community-dwelling older adults in Korea. Methods: A total of 6,879 older adults' data, selected from the Korean National Survey on the Elderly 2014 data, were analyzed. The criteria for selection were responding to the questionnaires directly and normal cognitive function. Stratified sampling logistic regression analysis was conducted on the compiled data. Results: It was seen that 37.3% of older adults were prepared for death; specifically, 28.6% had arranged for resting places, 10.7% had purchased burial clothes, 6.8% had subscribed to mutual aid societies, 0.7% participated in death education, and 0.6% had signed a will. The results of logistic regression indicated that the older adults who were females, older age, religious, highly educated, more satisfied with their economic status, living in rural areas, and participating in more social activities were more likely to prepare for their deaths compared to their counterparts. Conclusion: Education programs that prepare for death need to target marginalized groups in the community, such as male older adults and whose participation in social activities or satisfaction with their economic status are relatively low.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Rural Architecture
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.27-36
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• 2018

At present, the elderly population in Korea is 14% of the total population and then We has entered an the society of advanced age. Along with this, elderly people with dementia and palsy are also increasing. The demand for elderly nursing homes for elderly people with severe diseases such as dementia and stroke is also increasing, and the existing buildings are being secured by Conversion of existing buildings. However, it is difficult to evacuate and fire due to the out of date of buildings by Conversion of existing buildings. For example, there is a fire in the Indukukwon, Pohang City and Hyosung Geriatric Hospital, Jangseong in Korea, which have changed the use of existing buildings. Many elderly people died in a night fire. It was because of the sandwich panel walls and PVC flooring material produced toxic gas instantly. In this study, we investigated the nursing home that changing the use and established fire prevention of human injury and countermeasure of evacuation. First, the sandwich panels which leading to deaths due to the toxic gas were installed in most nursing home. We recommend the RC, the masonry wall, and the glass fiber panel instead of the sandwich panels, In addition, the PVC flooring is most used in nursing home, the flooring material is considered such as the building stones, the tile, and the yellow soil closing instead of the PVC flooring. Second, we investigated the installation status of fire fighting equipment. As a result, the automatic-emergency open&shut equipment, the smoke ventilator and the evacuation slide were rarely installed. In order to secure the golden time in case of fire and to prevent the asphyxia caused by the toxic gas, the law should be amended to install the equipment.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Information and Commucation Sciences Conference
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• 2022.10a
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• pp.242-244
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• 2022

In recent years, the number of single-person households is increasing with the aging of the population and the number of the elderly living alone is increasing rapidly with the aging of the population. Therefore, the lonely death of the elderly living alone has become a social issue. In many cases, the body is discovered several days after death. In particular, lonely death of the elderly living alone is being taken more seriously in society, as there is no one to arrange funerals, organize and dispose of their belongings. Since the body is usually found after a few days, the decomposition of the body is often severe. Therefore, this paper proposes an indoor monitoring system using a temperature and humidity sensor and a human body sensor to prevent and respond to lonely deaths in the elderly living alone.