• Journal of the Korean Society of Physical Medicine
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.9-17
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• 2019

PURPOSE: This research was designed to study the correlations between physical activities such as foot sensory impairment, balance and ambulatory abilities, as well as fall risk factors and mental activities such as cognitive performance and depression in order to provide fundamental data for the prevention of falling in the elderly. METHODS: A total of 36 elderly people over the age of 65 years who voluntarily joined the research were selected as subjects. Sensory perception in both feet was measured by using a monofilament in 10 parts with each part given one point. The points for each foot were integrated to analyze the correlations between physical and mental activities indices, and the results were analyzed by using Pearson's correlation coefficient. RESULTS: The results of this research show that the extent to which senses in feet were impaired was correlated to TUG, a functional activity index involved in tranfers, gait, and turning movements, which was correlated to BBS (balance index) as well as MMSE-K and K-GDS (mental activities index). BBS was interrelated to FES-K (physical activities index) and MMSE-K. The muscular strength of the right ankle dorsiflexor had mutual relations with FES-K. CONCLUSION: The results of this research indicate that TUG is widely correlated to foot sensory impairment as well as general physical and mental activities in elderly people. BBS was also shown to be correlated with TUG, FES-K, and MMSE-K. Thus, it might be necessary that TUG and BBS be included as two items in physical and mental check-ups for the elderly, and further studies on correlations using evaluation items for physical and mental activities should lead to the simplification of the evaluation criteria.

• Korean Journal of Applied Biomechanics
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.697-705
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• 2009

The purpose of this study is to elucidate the possible cause of falling owing to mechanical energy in elderly women as compared to young women when performing the sit-to-walk movement. Two groups participated in this study: 10 elderly women and 10 young women. We used a ProReflex MCU camera (Qualisis, Sweden) and ground reaction force to evaluate the mechanical work. The muscle power (W) showed the same low negative work in both groups in the extension phase of the knee and hip joints while varying the angular velocity and net muscle moment of force. Elderly women, in particular, showed lower negative work. In mechanical work (J), the knee and hip joints of both groups showed the same amount of negative work in the extension phase. In the hip joint, elderly women showed lower negative work results in each phase. These result showed the possible reasons of falling for elderly women according to the weakness of the thigh muscle of the hip joint during the sit-to-walk movement.

• The Journal of Korean Physical Therapy
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.27-34
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• 2009

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of 8weeks of exercise station training with elastic band and swissball on body compositions and balance ability for elderly women. Methods: This study was designed as a experimental pre-post exercise station training evaluation. The experimental group performed exercises with band and ball for 8 weeks. The effects of the program were assessed using instruments measuring the body compositions and balance ability before and after participating in the training program. Results: There were no significant differences in body compositions and index of falling down risk, however, there were significant differences with balance index, functional reach test and one leg stand test. Conclusion: These findings suggest that exercise station training with elastic band and swissball can serve as an effective means of improving balance ability in elderly women.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.243-256
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• 2013

Objectives: This study was to investigate fear of falling and related factors in elderly living alone based on fall experience. Methods: Participants were 404 elderly women(faller=148, non-faller=256) over 65 years who were homebound living alone in Jeollanam-do Province. Face-to-face interviews were conducted using questionnaires from April $23^{th}$ to June $9^{th}$ 2013. The questionnaires consisted of demographic variables, fall experience, Fear of falling questionnaire(FOFQ), Falls Efficacy Scale(FES) and Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression(CES-D). The collected data were analyzed using the SPSS version 14.0. Results: The fear of falling and the influential factors were different according to fall experience. Regression model for fear of falling in fallers significantly accounted for 46.1%(F=6.71, p<0.001); difficulty of performing activity, depression, fall-efficacy, static balance and assistive devices. Regression model for fear of falling in non-fallers significantly accounted for 55.2%(F=15.16, p<0.001); fall-efficacy, environmental hazards, difficulty of performing activity, risk of nutrition, housing type, dizziness and assistive devices. Conclusion: Results demonstrate that fall is an important health problem for elderly women living alone, and show fall experience for factors influencing fear of falling. These results could be used in the developing fall prevention programs.

• 한국노년학
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.237-250
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• 2017

The purpose of this study is to analyze the effects of exercise program for prevention of falling on physical fitness, posture and fall prevention self-efficacy for elderly women. 30 females above the age of 65 were subjects for this study. Over an twelve week period, 14women in the experimental group performed exercise 2 times a week for 60 minutes per session. 16women in the control group didn't participate in the exercise program. The independent variable was a exercise program for prevention of falling. Dependent variables were physical fitness, posture and fall prevention self-efficacy. Prevention of falling exercise program is consisted of an elastic band using exercise and Korean dance movement exercise. Physical fitness consisted of grip strength, upper and lower body endurance, cardiovascular endurance, flexibility, balance, coordination. The posture was measured the static posture when standing, using a high-resolution camera, body style to automatically measure the distance and angle(M-zen, Korea). Posture was measured in both the coronal and sagittal plane via reference board. Fall prevention self-efficacy was measured via questionnaire using the Korea Falls Self-Efficacy Scale (FES-K). The physical fitness, posture and fall prevention self-efficacy were measured twice with pre and post exercise, and the difference between groups with Wilcox signed rank test, and the group-specific post verification was carried out with U-validated methods (Mann Whitney U test). Statistical significance level was verified by setting the p<.05. Lower body endurance, cardiovascular endurance, flexibility, balance and coordination significantly increased in the experimental group. The control group was no significant increase in physical fitness variables. shoulder slope angle, pelvic slope angle(coronal/sagittal), leg length difference, scapular inferior angle and left/right calcaneus angle significantly decreased in the experimental group. Both the experimental group and control group were no significant increase in fall prevention self efficacy. The prevention of falling exercise program for elderly women indicated the positive changes in physical fitness(except grip strength) and posture(except upper body slope). However, there are no significant differences of falling prevention self-efficacy between the both group. Thus, the prevention of falling exercise program for the elderly has been proved that it is highly efficient on improving physical fitness and posture proofreading. However, we still need to consider supplement exercise for grip strength and upper body slope.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.26 no.8
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• pp.1165-1171
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• 2022

Human behavior recognition using an accelerometer has been applied to various fields. As smartphones have become used commonly, a method for human behavior recognition using the acceleration sensor built into the smartphone is being studied. In the case of the elderly, falling often leads to serious injuries, and falls are one of the major causes of accidents at construction fields. In this article, we proposed recognition method for human falling direction using built-in acceleration sensor and orientation sensor in the smartphone. In the past, it was a common method to use the magnitude of the acceleration vector to recognize human behavior. These days, deep learning has been actively studied and applied to various areas. In this article, we propose a method for recognizing the direction of human falling by applying the deep learning multilayer technique, which has been widely used recently.

• Fashion & Textile Research Journal
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.1001-1007
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• 2014

We surveyed the wearing characteristics of hip protectors. The problems of existing hip protectors were identified and the directions for improvement were presented. The evaluation of wearing characteristics was conducted on the 100 elderly women (60 to 85 years) with 5 types of hip protector. The questionnaire was composed of history and characteristics on falling, hip protector acceptance, preference, use characteristics and improvement requirements. The result of wearing characteristic evaluation indicated that 52% of the subject experienced falling in winter. Incidents resulting from falling occurred: outdoors (74.5%), bathroom (10.9%), and kitchen (5.5%). Body parts to be protected were in several areas: 35.6% for lumbar, 26.9% for hip joint, and 15% for hip bone. Participants prefer a belt B type design at a rate of 56.9% because it provided a sense of stability by clinging to the body and upholding the waist. Belt B type was the most appropriate in terms of fit, allowance, mobility, and design except pad thickness. To reduce the risk of hip fracture, hip protector needs to be designed in consideration of user's type of fall and body shape. The pattern and size of a hip protector has to be improved in regards to the amount of discomfort. An objective evaluation is needed for the ergonomic design of a hip protector based on and analysis of 3D body image of the elderly and the shock-absorbing quality of pad.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.781-788
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• 2013

In this paper, we introduce a quadruped robot-based alarm system for monitoring the emergency situation due to falling in the elderly. Quadruped robot includes the FPGA Board(Field Programmable Gate Array) applying a red-color tracking algorithm. To detect a falling of the elderly, a sensor node is worn on chest and accelerations and angular velocities measured by the sensor node are transferred to quadruped robot, and then the emergency signal is transmitted to manager if a fall is detected. Manager controls the robot and then he judges the situation by monitoring the real-time images transmitted from the robot. If emergency situation is decided by the manager, he calls 119. When the fall detection system using only sensor nodes is used, sensitivity of 100% and specificity of 98.98% were measured. Using the combination of the fall detection system and portable camera (robot), the emergency situation was detected to 100 %.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.479-489
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• 2017

The purpose of this study was to identify factors associated with falls among older adults. This cross-sectional study used the data of 10,272 older adults who participating in the Korean Elderly survey, including demographic and health related characteristics. The data were analyzed with complex samples in SPSS ver. 23.0. The results of multiple logistic regression analysis showed that age (OR=1.262, 95%CI 1.111-1.433), education (OR=0.846, 95%CI 0.764-0.937), subjective health status (OR=1.172, 95% CI 1.041-1.320; OR=1.422, 95%CI 1.289-1.570), number of chronic illness (OR=1.438, 95%CI 1.050-1.968), number of medications (OR=0.798, 95%CI 0.659-0.967), muscle strength of low extremities (OR=1.260, 95%CI 1.101-1.441), and fear of falling (OR=3.576, 95%CI 3.166-4.039; OR=14.236, 95%CI 12.637-16.038)were significantly associated with fall accidents in the elderly. Thus, it is necessary to develop fall prevention program to reduce fear of falling and improve health status in the elderly.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Integrative Medicine
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.175-183
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• 2021

Purpose : Few studies have examined the relationship between elderly falls and quality of life (QOL) in a large general population. Furthermore, although many studies have investigated the relationships between socio-demographic factors and falls, relatively few studies have evaluated the associations of places and environments with QOL of fall. The purpose of the scheme was to identify the relationship between falls and QOL in a large sample of the elderly. Methods : This study used raw data from the 2013 Korean community health survey. A total of 228,781 people participated in the 2013 study among them 61.552 people were aged 65 or older. Authors also excluded 40 people whose QOL confirmation was unclear. Therefore, final analysis was conducted 61,512 senior citizens. The survey contained questions about the occurrence of falls, number of falls occurring per year, location of occurrence, and cause of falls. QOL was measured using the EQ-5D, an evaluation tool developed by the EuroQol group. Results : The results showed a statistically significantly lower QOL to little fear and full of fear as compared with no fear of falls (p<.05). The number of falls was statistically significantly lower in one, two, and three or more times, than in zero (i.e. no falls)(p<.05). In the falling environments, fall experience, but not related to lighting (p>.05), had a significant lower in QOL compared without the experience (p<.05). Conclusion : This study concluded that there is a strong connection between fall and QOL to the elderly, particularly regarding the number of occurrences, place, and environment. However, we found that an environment (e.g. the lack of lighting) might not affect QOL. It means that when the experts who make an effective tool or intervention may not need to consider indoor and outdoor darkness.