• Journal of Digital Contents Society
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.319-325
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• 2018

The general public's interest in dementia has increased recently as dementia has become a social issue due to its rapid aging. Several dementia prevention and rehabilitation programs are being carried out at the dementia rehabilitation center and at the old welfare center depending on the number of dementia patients. In this paper, a 3 dimensional finger and motion search of the leap motion is utilized and combined with dementia preventive and cognitive rehabilitation programs at various facilities. We suggest technologies that can provide both fun and effective treatment and rehabilitation content for rehabilitation therapists. A variety of cognitive enhancement content is designed using finger tracking and configured to be recorded in the database for rehabilitation programmes to increase the effectiveness of management.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.13 no.5
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• pp.313-325
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• 2022

The purpose of this study is to examine the changes in the elderly healthcare app market through text mining analysis and to present basic data for activating elderly healthcare apps. Data collection was conducted on Naver, Daum, blog web, and cafe. As for the research method, text mining, TF-IDF(Term frequency-inverse document frequency), emotional analysis, and semantic network analysis were conducted using Textom and Ucinet6, which are big data analysis programs. As a result of this study, a total of six categories were finally derived: resolving the healthcare app information gap, convergence healthcare technology, diffusion media, elderly healthcare app industry, social background, and content. In conclusion, in order for elderly healthcare apps to be accepted and utilized by the elderly, they must have a good diffusion infrastructure, and the effectiveness of healthcare apps must be maximized through the active introduction of convergence technology and content development that can be easily used by the elderly.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.53-67
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• 2017

Objective: The purpose of this study is to build basic data to systematically develop a hand function evaluation tool by determining the effects of age, gender and target force level on the difference in hand function according to the target force level. Background: Precise and objective evaluation of hand functionality is a very important factor in quantifying treatment progress in patients or elderly people, and in verifying treatment effects. However, most hand function evaluations lack objectivity and accuracy, and therefore it is difficult to properly treat patients according to the given situation. Method: Sixteen healthy subjects (eight elderly and eight young people) participated in this study to evaluate the effects of age, gender, and target force level on tracking performance through rRMSE in terms of the tracking force and actual exerted force, by carrying out a task of maintaining six different target force levels for 20 seconds. Results: The result of this experiment indicated that elderly people and women had a lower ability to maintain a certain level of force than young people and men by 16% and 10%, respectively. The target force level results showed that the tracking error of the lowest force level (5% MVC) was significantly higher than that of 15% MVC, which in turn showed a higher tracking error than that of the higher target force levels. Conclusion: The results of this study can thus be utilized to develop a rehabilitation program for elderly people or other patients. Application: The authors expect that the results of the present study will be valuable to develop a rehabilitation program and hand function evaluation tool.

• The Journal of Korean Physical Therapy
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.362-369
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• 2012

Purpose: This study examined the effects of an elastic band resistance exercise program on the body functions and Glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c) of elderly people with type 2 diabetes. Methods: Twenty-seven elderly patients with type 2 diabetes were enrolled in this study (exercise group 14, control group 13). The subjects in the exercise group participated in the program for 60 minutes a day, three times a week, for 12 weeks. All the subject's body functions, HbA1c were measured to compare the following: before the intervention, at the completion of the 12 weeks intervention, and eight weeks after the intervention. Results: Compared to the control group, the exercise group showed significant improvements in the 12 week and follow-up measurement after the intervention in body function, such as the strength of the upper and lower limbs, agility and limit of stability. The body functions of the exercise group improved as the period of intervention progressed. On the other hand, the HbA1c level at each follow-up measurement was similar in the two groups. Conclusion: The 12 week elastic band exercise program is recommended as an effective intervention for improving the body functions of elderly people with type 2 diabetes. Nevertheless, a combined intervention of steady exercise, diet therapy and drug therapy will be needed for further active prevention and management of type 2 diabetes.

• Physical Therapy Rehabilitation Science
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.82-89
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• 2021

Purpose: This study is to investigate the muscle activity based on real-time visual feedback training methods by rehabilitative ultrasound image in elderly and correlation between Heckmatt scale grade, muscle tone and thickness. Design: Cross-sectional study: Pilot study Methods: 6 elderly participated in the study with 2 conditions. Under the condition of rehabilitation ultrasound imaging equipment, all subjects performed voluntary maximal muscle contraction of the quadriceps 3 times using visual feedback based on Rehabilitative Ultrasound Imaging 1.0 (RUSI 1.0). Under the condition of only ultrasound images, all subjects performed voluntary maximal muscle contraction of the quadriceps 3 times using ultrasound image-based visual feedback. The muscle thickness and tone of the quadriceps were measured and the grades were classified by Heckmatt scale and all variables were comparative analyzed. Results: Heckmatt scale grade showed a negative correlation with muscle thickness at relaxation (p<0.05), and a negative correlation with the difference value obtained by subtracting muscle thickness at relaxation from muscle thickness at contraction in ultrasound image condition (p<0.05). The muscle tone during relaxation showed a negative correlation with the muscle thickness during relaxation (p<0.05). Conclusion: In the case of voluntary maximum muscle contraction of the quadriceps muscle in the elderly, it can be seen that the muscle thickness is getting larger when the RUSI 1.0-based visual feedback is provided than with only ultrasound image provided. And the lower Heckmatt scale grade is, the thicker the muscle is, and the lower the muscle tone is.

• Physical Therapy Rehabilitation Science
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.478-487
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• 2022

Objective: This study was conducted to analyze the effect of wearable complex muscle support system on energy efficiency during walking in elderly. Design: Cross sectional study Methods: Twenty healthy elderly participated in this study. All subjects performed a 6 minuteswalk test(6MWT) and stair climbing test in dual, slack and no suit conditions. In each condition, oxygen consumption(VO₂), metabolic equivalents(METs), energy expenditure measures(EEm), physiological cost index(PCI), walking velocity and heartrate were measured. Through repeated measured ANOVA, it was investigated whether there was a statistically significant difference in the measurement results between the three conditions. Results: In over-ground walking, VO₂, METs and EEm showed significant differences between no suit and slack conditions(p<0.05). In stair climbing, VO₂ showed significant difference between slack and dual conditions(p<0.05). Also, METs and EEm showed significant differences between no suit and slack, and between slack and dual conditions(p<0.05). Conclusions: Wearing the wearable complex muscle support system for elderly does not have much benefit in energy metabolism efficiency in over-ground, but there is a benefit in stair walking.

• The Journal of the Institute of Internet, Broadcasting and Communication
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.63-70
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• 2023

In this paper, we propose a Mixed Reality based rehabilitation exercise solution with the goal of mitigating one of the most common chronic conditions among the elderly, musculoskeletal disorders. In modern society, as the number of elderly increases, more people engage in office work and engage in more sedentary activities. Due to repetitive work in the office, muscle strength decreases and this causes many difficulties in daily life. In this study, we developed a mixed reality based exercise platform to solve these chronic musculoskeletal diseases. VR is not appropriate for elderly because of dizziness. In addition, we developed a wearable sensor based on IMU and attached it to important parts of the upper body to motion tracking. We developed a algorithm synchronize to raw data from wearable sensor with in a vr avatar. Ederly can check in real time whether rehabilitation exercises are being performed accurately through the avatar.

• Journal of Korean Medicine for Obesity Research
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.66-73
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• 2013

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to investigate the characteristics in elderly population with obesity by analyzing their blood test. Methods: Included 130 subjects of aged 60 or older went through body composition test, and blood test. We divided them into obesity group and normal group based on body mass index (BMI) results, and then the blood test results were compared between the groups. Results: Forty out of 130 subjects had BMI of 25 or more. Two groups showed significant difference in bilirubin total, alanine aminotransferase (ALT), cholesterol total, triglyceride, high density lipoprotein (HDL), red blood cell (RBC), hematocrite, mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration, and platelet. All but HDL levels showed significantly higher results in obesity group than normal group. When compared with BMI, blood urea nitrogen, creatinine, ALT, cholesterol total, triglyceride, white blood cell (WBC), and RBC had significant positive correlations. Among those, cholesterol total, triglyceride, WBC, and RBC showed significant difference between two groups, with correlation to BMI. Especially, the average of triglyceride was higher than normal limit in obesity group, whereas it was lower than normal limit in normal group. Conclusions: Triglyceride, cholesterol total, WBC, and RBC are highly related to obese elderly in this study. Old people with obesity need to be careful of cardiovascular and metabolic disease that can be caused by these factors.

• The Journal of Korean society of community based occupational therapy
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.91-106
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• 2018

The purpose of this paper is to review vestibulo-ocular reflex and vestibular rehabilitation for balace problem in elderly. Falling is a common problem associated with aging. Falling and the resulting consequences constitutes one of the most common and serious problems. Balance deficits are one of the top risk factors for falling. Three systems(visual, vestibular and somatosensory) need to be integrated and used to coordinate and control balance. During normal ambulation and head movement, the vestibulo-ocular reflex(VOR) stabilizes gaze, and helps to keep the image of the retina. There is a direct association between deficits in VOR and falls. Older adults have a decreased ability to enhance and suppress the VOR. Vestibular rehabilitation(VR) is an exercise-based group of approaches that began with the aim of central nervous system compensation. VR restores VOR gain and reduces error using repetitive movements of the head and eyes. Many researches showd balance and gait tests were superior in the VR group. It is considered this article helps to prevent elderly falling with vestibular rehabilitation.

• The Journal of Korean Physical Therapy
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.81-86
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• 2009

Purpose: This study compared the characteristics of the brake response time during the driving task between elderly and younger drivers. Methods: The participants consisted of an elderly group (n=12) and a younger group (n=12). The brake response time (BRT), which consisted of the reaction time (RT) and movement time (MT), was assessed in an actual driving car. The BRT was measured at the initiation and termination of the brake response for the driving task Results: The elderly group showed a significantly longer delay in the initiation and termination of the brake response than the younger group. The BRT correlated significantly with both the RT and MT. However, the RT showed a more significant correlation. Conclusion: A delay in the initiation and termination of the brake response may have clinical implications. A further study will be needed to determine the different factors contributing to the driving performance of elderly drivers.