• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.107-115
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• 2019

The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of forest healing programs with walking, sightseeing, and forest scent among six healing forest treatments using forest environment on the cognitive function, depression, and quality of life of elderly living alone. The subjects of the study were 17 senior citizens living in Samcheok and complaining of severe depression and forgetfulness. They were divided into two groups, and each group participated in the six sessions of the weekly forest healing program. All of them were surveyed of a Korean version of the MMSE-K, BDI (Beck Depression Inventory Korean Version), and SF-36 (Short Form 36 health survey questionnaire) with the questionnaire designed for the one-group pre-post test to examine changes in cognitive function, depression, and quality of life. The results showed that the mental status, depression level, and quality of life of respondents were significantly higher after healing programs. These results suggest that participation in healing program activities using forest environment can improve cognitive function, relieve depression and improve quality of life for senior citizens living alone. Therefore, inducing older adults who live alone and avoid outside activities to participate in the regular forest healing program will contribute to the prevention of dementia due to age and environment.

• Journal of the Korea Society of Computer and Information
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• v.25 no.8
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• pp.81-87
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• 2020

In this paper, proposes a health status monitoring system for socially marginalized elderly households living alone. This system is implemented by collecting various PHR biometric signals and residential environment information through IoT devices. In addition, the company aims to establish a basic infrastructure that can understand the situation of lonely deaths and implement prevention programs by strengthening the predictive ability through data analysis of the DB server based on PHR and information collected from IoT sensors. The sensor consists of an environmental information collection sensor and a noncontact and wearable sensor for biometric signal collection. A gateway is required to transmit the collected data to the server, and the prototype is presented in this paper. The paper has a discussion purpose of policy task for expanding medical welfare service. The results of this study are believed to help expand services to the socially marginalized and improve the medical environment of the people.

• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.65-86
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• 1990

Living conditions of the rural elderly were assessed in terms of clothing behavior, health and nutritional status, housing and envioronmental condition, and psychological adjustment. The subjects were eighty individuals over sixty residing in the rural community of Iksan-kun, Chollabukdo. The interview method using questionnaires, direct measurement, and observation was used for this study. Data were compared with those obtained from a previous study of the elderly residing in an urban area. Clothing behavior showed that the elderly residing in the rural community were more concerned about plain and conservative design of clothes than their urban counterparts. Special protective clothes for cropdusting with agricultural chemicals had not been prepared. The following urgent needs were pointed out: development and supply of agricultural chemical protective clothing and development and education of appropriate washing and clothing care methods. The health status of the elderly was generally good, but poor eating habits were found more frequently in the rural elderly than among the urban dwellers. Several dietary nutrient intakes were insufficient. Contrasting the urban elderly with the rural group, it was found that the urban group lacked sufficient vitamin A and vitamin C and the urban women had insufficient calorie whereas the rural group was deficient in protein, vitamin A, calorie, and fat. A significant relationship was found between dietary nutrient intake and health index, food habit points, self recognized health status, meal satisfaction, and economic status. Urgent needs of the development of a nutrition education program for the elderly were pointed out. Most of elderly residing in the surveyed rural communities were living alone or with their spouse only, therefore only one room was used among the three or four available rooms. Most of the rural elderly were living either in a traditional Korean house built with differing floor levels or in a modified Korean style house. Minimal modernization had been made for kitchen facilities such as sink and gas range or for heating facilities with the briquette boiler. However, sanitary space such as lavatory and bathroom had not been remodeled. A housing welfare program for rural communities should be implemented at the national level. The comparison of psychological characteristics of the rural elderly with their city counterparts revealed that the rural elderly have a more stable psychological status and optimistic attitude than those living in a city. However, it was found that most of the elderly did not have any future plan. Community programs for the elderly including hobbies or leisure activities or education programs to generate close interpersonal relationships with their children should be developed and provided.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.373-381
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• 2007

The elderly population in Korea is growing rapidly and their nutritional status is not acceptable. Data were collected from the self-administered questionnaire of 495 free living elderly, over 65years old, in Korea to asses the intake and consumption pattern of milk and dairy products. The questionnaire contains demographics, health related characteristics, and perception on milk, and consumption behaviors of milk and dairy products. Most of the elderly subjects understood that milk is good foods in terms of nutritive value and health. And 67% of the subjects satisfied with the sanitation status of milk on the markets. The kind of milk that majority of the subjects consumed was whole milk, and only 5.1% of them consumed low fat milk. Less than 20% of the subjects consumed milk everyday, living alone group consumed milk less frequently than living with others. It was found that the majority of the elderly subjects did not meet current recommendation for milk. Liquid and curd type yogurt were the major dairy products used among elderly, and the reasons were good taste and digestion. They believed that these kinds of dairy products help constipation and digestion problems. The price of milk was ranked for the first factor needed to be considered for milk and dairy products consumption in elderly korean.

• Journal of Convergence for Information Technology
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.55-64
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• 2017

This study was to develop a dementia prevention integration program and apply to elderly women living alone to evaluate the applicability of the program. Fifty-six participants who enrolled at local public health centers were assigned. The control and experimental groups were assigned to 28 subjects. As a result of the study, the integrated program for prevention of dementia showed that the experimental group was more effective as the self-practice program than the control group. Therefore, This program is considered to be a self-practice integrated dementia prevention program. In the future, this program should be revised and supplemented and extended to the local community, So it is necessary to seek a nursing intervention strategy that subjects can continuously practice.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.299-308
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• 2016

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to develop a positive psychology-based and character strengths-integrated activity program for elders living alone in rural areas, and then to examine the effectiveness of the program. Methods: A quasi-experimental pre- and post-test design with a nonequivalent control group was used. The participants included 59 elders in total, of whom 30 were assigned to the experimental group and 29 to the control group. positive psychology-based and character strengths-integrated activity program for elders consists of sixty-minute sessions held twice per week during 6 weeks, hence 12 sessions in total. Results: There were significant differences between the experimental and control groups in depression, vitality and life satisfaction (all p<.001). Conclusion: The positive psychology-based and character strengths-integrated activity program for elders living alone in rural areas is effective in that it decreased the degree of depression and increased the vitality and life satisfaction in the participants.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.21 no.8
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• pp.304-314
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• 2020

This study examined the experiences of the suicide crisis and recovery process by elderly women living alone to identify the essential meaning and components of life as a life to live again. In addition, the recovery of the research participants, as well as the phenomenon of such changes in thought and life, were examined. The results of this study were as follows. Data analysis yielded four components, eight sub-components, and 16 semantic unit reductions. There were four components of suicide attempts and recovery experiences of elderly women. They were "disconnection and disqualification," "repeated hardships," "road of prosperity in trouble," and "generous tolerance." The essential topics of these components have emerged not as individual but as holistic and contextually connectable topics. Finally, to summarize the results, the essential semantic structure of the suicide attempt and recovery experience of elderly women living alone is a result of a dysfunctional social structure and environment, which has placed pressure on the life of research participants. As an alternative method to overcome, they tried to solve the problem through the extreme practice of suicide attempts, but positive energy to live again due to emotional recovery factors recognized through suicide failures have made it possible to cope with the difficult reality.

• 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.

• Journal of the Architectural Institute of Korea Planning & Design
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• v.34 no.7
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• pp.13-20
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• 2018

In this study, it was started with the research for improving the housing plan of the elderly and the aged housing environment. The spatial extent of the study is in Haedoji Village, Yeongdo, Busan, and the time ranged from the mid-1950s, when the Korean war broke out and the refugees started to settle, to the present as of August 2017. As Result, the size of the residential space per capita was overcrowded at $9.2m^2$ in the 1970s and 1980s, when the number of families was high, but since 2010, the size of the residential space currently living alone with only one elderly or couple was $29.2m^2$. In the future, it can be judged that the size of elderly housing can be expected to be envisioned within about $35{\sim}40m^2$ in consideration of the diversity of housing including table space in the 2LDK type.

• 한국노년학
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• v.39 no.3
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• pp.415-427
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• 2019

This study examined the effects of eating with others on depressive symptoms among the community-dwelling older adults by family arrangement, using the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 7th (2016). A total of 1,233 older adults aged over 65 was included in this analysis. Eating status (alone / with others) and family arrangement (living alone / living with family) were dichotomized based on the original questionnaire. Among 955 older adults who live with family members, 855 persons (89.5%) eat together and 100 persons (10.5%) eat alone. Among 278 older adults who live alone, 86 persons (30.9%) eat together and 69 persons (69.1%) eat alone. Regression analysis controlling for demographic and health related factors, eating with others was significantly related to lower levels of depressive symptoms in the group of older adults who live with family members (β = -1.663, p <.001), while there is no statistical significance (β = -0.856, p = .148) in the counterpart. Therefore, various types of community-based programs need to be developed to encourage older adults to eat with other in their ordinary lives. It is also recommended that the community has to offer consistent care and support for the elderly particularly who live alone.