• Journal of Korean Academy of Rural Health Nursing
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.18-28
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• 2021

Purpose: This study attempted to confirm whether the suicide prevention effect could be achieved by managing the frailty of the elderly in rural areas. Methods: This study is a single-group pre-post study design. The frailty management program was applied twice a week for 12 weeks for the vulnerable elderly in the rural area from 16th April to 31st May in 2020. The program consisted of physical exercise, health education on nutrition management and disease control, cognitive training, and protein drink provision. Results: The average age of the participants was 77.1 years, and they lived alone (88.6%). As a result of providing the program, there were positive results such as increase in body strength (pre 12.27: post 13.27) and weight (pre 58.51: post 59.13), and decrease in depression (pre 4.66: post 1.20), and there was no statistically significant change in quality of life, Time Up & Go, and BMI. Conclusion: Frailty should be managed to prevent suicide in the elderly. It is necessary to expand and apply various programs that combine physical functions and emotional interventions such as health education, and exercise to maintain muscle strength.

• 한국노년학
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.891-903
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• 2018

This study investigated the relation between frailty, social support, and health-related quality of life to provide basic data to improve the health-related quality of life of old-old elderly who are a high risk group for frailty. For this descriptive study, one-on-one interviews with structured questionnaires were conducted for elderly aged 75 years or older at elderly welfare facilities in K county from March 01 to 31 in 2016, and a total of 211 elderly were interviewed. The collected data were analyzed by t-test, Pearson's correlation coefficient, and path analysis using SPSS/WIN and AMOS 18.0 program. For the differences between the age groups, those aged over 80 years had a significantly higher frailty (t=-2.51, p=.013) and a lower health-related quality of life than those aged below 80 years (t=3.29, p=.001); however, there was no significant difference in social support (t=1.28, p=.201). The correlation between frailty, social support and health-related quality of life showed that as frailty became higher, social support (r=-.21, p=.003) and health-related quality of life (r=-.65, p<.001) were significantly lower, and health-related quality of life was significantly higher with a higher social support (r=.18, p=.010). As a result of investigating the mediating effects of frailty between social support and health-related quality of life, social support had a significant direct effect on frailty (${\beta}=-.21$, p=.016) and frailty had a significant direct effect on health-related quality of life (${\beta}=-.06$, p=.004); however, social support had no significant direct effect on health-related quality of life (${\beta}=.00$, p=.562). Social support had a significant indirect effect on health-related quality of life and a mediating effect on frailty (${\beta}=.01$, p=.012); therefore, the full mediation effect of frailty between social support and health-related quality of life was verified. Social support prevents frailty, and improving frailty enhances health-related quality of life. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a multifactorial frailty prevention program that includes age-specific social support strategies to improve the health-related quality of life in old-old elderly.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.313-323
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• 2017

This study is a descriptive study that investigates the factors that affect the frailty of the elderly in the late period. The data were collected using a questionnaire during the period from 1 to 31 of December 2013. The subjects were 301 elderly people aged 70 years living in M city. The data were analyzed using a $x^2$ test, t-test, and ANOVA with the SPSS Statistics 18.0 program. Hierarchical regression analysis was performed to examine the factors that affect the weakness of elderly people. The results showed that 15.3% of the elderly living at home were frail. The factors that affect the frailty of the elderly were sex (p<0.01), nutritional status (p<0.01), cognition function (p<0.01), ADL (p<0.01), IADL (p<0.05), visual acuity (p<0.05), and chewing discomfort (p<0.05). A higher the degree of frailty was associated with women, poorer nutritional status, higher impairments to perform the daily activities (ADL and IADL), poorer hearing, and more feeling of chewing discomfort. These results can explain the frailty of elderly people over 70 years of age in a local community and the variables of health. The results suggest that the development of a comprehensive program for the elderly with weak physical, emotional, and functional health should be given priority.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.201-211
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• 2012

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effects of a local community based multi-factorial program for high-risk younger and older elderly people. Methods: The quasi-experimental research design (pretest-post test) was employed. Participants were recruited in Seoul and a total of 98 elders completed an 8-week multi-factorial program for preventing frailty. Descriptive statistics, $x^2$-test and GLM were used in the data analysis with SPSS/WIN 15.0. Results: The high-risk elderly people in the younger and older stages showed differences in IADL, TUG and BMI, and after being provided with the multi-factorial program for preventing frailty, some effects were shown on improving the total score of frailty, a physical function, TUG, BMI, depression, subjective feeling of health, and social interaction. Conclusion: The 8-week multi-factorial program for preventing frailty had positive effects on improving physical, emotional and social functions of the high-risk elderly people. It is necessary to evaluate the effects after individual intervention as well as group intervention and to evaluate the effects of the program by setting a control group in the future.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.129-139
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• 2016

Objective: The purpose of this study was to identify the predictors and frailty level in the frail elderly receiving home visiting health care services. Methods: The subjects were 177 frail elders aged over 65 registered in the home visiting health care services of three public health centers in Daegu. The data collection was performed from June 9 to June 24, 2015. This study used descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA, scheffe test and stepwise multiple regression by SPSS Win 18.0 program. Results: The mean of the frailty score was 10.05 (${\pm}4.52$). Age and life satisfaction were the significant factors related to the frailty score in frail elderly. Health promotion behavior, empowerment, social participation and perceived health status had a negative correlation with the frailty score. Thirty seven point four percent of the variance in the frailty score can be explained by perceived health status (${\beta}=-0.398$, p<0.001), health promotion behavior (${\beta}=-0.251$, p<0.001) and age (${\beta}=0.232$, p<0.001)(Cum $R^2=0.374$, F=25.744, p<0.001). Perceived health status was the most important factor related to the frailty score in our study. Conclusions: An integrative care program which includes these significant variables of subjects is essential to prevent the deterioration of frailty in frail elderly.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.429-439
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• 2018

Purpose: The aim of this study is to identify core keyword of frailty research in the past 35 years to understand the structure of knowledge of frailty. Methods: 10,367 frailty articles published between 1981 and April 2016 were retrieved from Web of Science. Keywords from these articles were extracted using Bibexcel and social network analysis was conducted with the occurrence network using NetMiner program. Results: The top five keywords with a high frequency of occurrence include 'disability', 'nursing home', 'sarcopenia', 'exercise', and 'dementia'. Keywords were classified by subheadings of MeSH and the majority of them were included under the healthcare and physical dimensions. The degree centralities of the keywords were arranged in the order of 'long term care' (0.55), 'gait' (0.42), 'physical activity' (0.42), 'quality of life' (0.42), and 'physical performance' (0.38). The betweenness centralities of the keywords were listed in the order of depression' (0.32), 'quality of life' (0.28), 'home care' (0.28), 'geriatric assessment' (0.28), and 'fall' (0.27). The cluster analysis shows that the frailty research field is divided into seven clusters: aging, sarcopenia, inflammation, mortality, frailty index, older people, and physical activity. Conclusion: After reviewing previous research in the 35 years, it has been found that only physical frailty and frailty related to medicine have been emphasized. Further research in psychological, cognitive, social, and environmental frailty is needed to understand frailty in a multifaceted and integrative manner.

• Journal of Korean Public Health Nursing
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.247-258
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• 2016

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of a comprehensive exercise program for the prevention of urinary incontinence (UI), frailty, and depression, as well as the promotion of physical function in community-dwelling elderly female living alone. Methods: A nonequivalent control group pretest-posttest design was employed. The participants were 76 vulnerable elderly female with a mild-to-moderate urinary incontinence. The exercise group completed 12 weeks of a moderate intensity, comprehensive exercise program. Descriptive statistics, independent t-tests and ANCOVA were used for data analysis with SPSS. Results: Upon the completion of the 12-week exercise program, significant improvements for UI symptoms (p=.001), timed up and go (p<.001), frailty (p=.006), and depression (p<.001) were observed, but not for hand grip strength (p=.053). Conclusion: The findings of this study indicate that the 12-week comprehensive exercise program for the prevention of urinary incontinence had positive effects on improving UI symptoms, physical function, levels of frailty and depression in elderly women living alone. More prolonged exercise programs with other types of exercise should be developed for these vulnerable elderly women, and future studies are encouraged to confirm the effect of the comprehensive exercise program in other settings.

• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
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• v.64 no.6
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• pp.995-1003
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• 2021

Objective : People are living longer and the elderly population continues to increase. The incidence of degenerative spinal diseases (DSDs) in the elderly population is quite high. Therefore, we are facing more cases of DSD and offering more surgical solutions in geriatric patients. Understanding the significance and association of frailty and central sarcopenia as risk factors for spinal surgery in elderly patients will be helpful in improving surgical outcomes. We conducted a retrospective cohort analysis of prospectively collected data to assess the impact of preoperative central sarcopenia, frailty, and comorbidity on surgical outcome in elderly patients with DSD. Methods : We conducted a retrospective analysis of patients who underwent elective spinal surgery performed from January 1, 2019 to September 30, 2020 at our hospital. We included patients aged 65 and over who underwent surgery on the thoracic or lumbar spine and were diagnosed as DSD. Central sarcopenia was measured by the 50th percentile of psoas : L4 vertebral index (PLVI) using the cross-sectional area of the psoas muscle. We used the Korean version of the fatigue, resistance, ambulation, illnesses, and loss of weight (K-FRAIL) scale to measure frailty. Comorbidity was confirmed and scored using the Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI). As a tool for measuring surgical outcome, we used the Clavien-Dindo (CD) classification for postoperative complications and the length of stay (LOS). Results : This study included 85 patients (35 males and 50 females). The mean age was 74.05±6.47 years. Using the K-FRAIL scale, four patients were scored as robust, 44 patients were pre-frail and 37 patients were frail. The mean PLVI was 0.61±0.19. According to the CD classification, 50 patients were classified as grade 1, 19 as grade 2, and four as grade 4. The mean LOS was 12.35±8.17 days. Multivariate stepwise regression analysis showed that postoperative complication was significantly associated with surgical invasiveness and K-FRAIL scale. LOS was significantly associated with surgical invasiveness and CCI. K-FRAIL scale showed a significant correlation with CCI and PLVI. Conclusion : The present study demonstrates that frailty, comorbidity, and surgical invasiveness are important risk factors for postoperative complications and LOS in elderly patients with DSD. Preoperative recognition of these factors may be useful for perioperative optimization, risk stratification, and patient counseling.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.46 no.1
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• pp.23-31
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• 2021

Objectives: Frailty and sarcopenia are recent important concepts in elder health care. Sarcopenia is the most important factor influencing frailty, and exercise and nutritional status are known to affect sarcopenia. The purpose of this study was to identify the relationship between nutritional status, sarcopenia, and frailty. Methods: This study was a cross-sectional design. The subjects of this study were 411 elderly people aged 65 or older from 10 villages in Gyeongnam. The survey tools were the K-FRAIL for frailty, the GDS-SF for depression, the SARC-F questionnaire for sarcopenia, and the DETERMINE for nutritional status. Frequency analysis, the chi-square test, and multiple logistic regression analysis were performed using the SPSS 25.0 program. Results: As a result of the chi-square test, there was a significant difference in the nutritional status and the frailty proportion (p<0.001), and there was a significant difference between frailty and suspected sarcopenia (p<0.001). After adjustment, nutritional status was significantly associated with sarcopenia (OR=2.946, p<0.001). In addition, nutritional status was significantly associated with frailty (OR=2.958, p<0.001), and sarcopenia also had a significant effect on frailty (OR=5.898, p<0.001). Finally, even after including sarcopenia, nutritional status had a significant effect on frailty (OR=2.246, p=0.002). Conclusions: Nutritional status can have both a direct effect on frailty and an indirect effect through sarcopenia, and it was found that sarcopenia also affects frailty. Therefore, it is necessary to evaluate sarcopenia and nutritional status and to evaluate their levels in the elderly and to take appropriate interventions.

• 한국노년학
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.893-907
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• 2017

This study aimed to investigate factors affecting frailty by urinary incontinence groups among the vulnerable elderly woman in Korea. In this secondary analysis, data were collected from records for 3,251 elders registered in the Visiting Health Management program of Public Health Centers in 2012. body mass index, waist circumference, timed up & go, depression, self rated helath, walking exercise, flexibility exercise, strengh exercise and frailty were assessed. Data were analyzed using $x^2$-test, t-test, ANOVA, Pearson's correlation and stepwise regression to determine the associated factors of frailty by urinary incontinence. Depression, walking exercise, timed up & go and age were found to be factors significantly associated with frailty among the elders with incontinence(F=38.321, p<.001). Age, depression, walking exercise, self rated health and tined up & go were found to be factors associated with frailty in the elders without incontinence(F=265.666 p<.001). The findings show that frailty of elders and associated factors were different by urinary incontinence, and common factors affecting frailty were depression, walking exercise, timed up & go, age. Thus, these factors should be considered in the development of intervention program for care and prevention of frailty and program should be modified according to urinary incontinence.