• Journal of Korean Academy of Fundamentals of Nursing
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.195-205
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• 2008

Purpose: This study was conducted to identify drug use by elders. Method: There were 304 participants age 65 or older included in this study. Data were collected using a questionnaire about drug use in the past 4 weeks. The questionnaire, a modification of Uhm's (2005), Lee's (2001), and Ellor and Kurz's (1982) tools, consisted of 17 questions on general and health characteristics, 17 on drug usage and 9 on behaviors related to drug misuse. Results: 85.5% of participants reported laking at least one type of prescription or non-prescription drug. 26.0% of participants reported taking only prescription drugs, 3.9% reported taking only non-prescription drugs, and 55.6% reported taking both prescription and non-prescription drugs. 17.1% of participants reported side effects from the drugs. The mean score for behaviors related to drug misuse was 7.53. Elders taking only non-prescription drugs showed more drug misuse than elders taking only prescription drugs or both. Women used more prescription, non-prescription drugs or both than man. Elders in rural areas used more non-prescription drugs than those in urban areas. Conclusion: Even though pharmacies were separated from medical practices in 2000, most older adults continue to use and misuse prescription and non-prescription drugs.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.46 no.2
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• pp.67-77
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• 2021

Objectives: This study aimed to identify the vaccination rate for pneumococcus among aged 65 or older, and at the same time to determine the reasons for vaccination or non-vaccination. Methods: The population of this study was aged 65 or older, with a total of 1,150 subjects to be analyzed and a computer assisted telephone interviewing was used. The survey included pneumococcal vaccination status, reasons of vaccination, sources of information on vaccination, reasons for not vaccination, and other related factors. Results: The vaccination rate for pneumococcus among aged 65 or older was 56.2 percent, lower than 69.0 percent in the U.S. (2017), and 69.2 percent in the U.K. (2019). Among the factors related to the pneumococcal vaccination, the groups with the high vaccination rate were women, low age groups, residents of urban areas, people without a job, people with high education, medical insurance subscribers, married people, and people who have family members. In addition, the groups with high vaccination rates were those with high awareness, those who received recommendations from doctors, those who had vaccination records, those who believed in vaccination effects, and those who saw public service advertisements. Conclusions: In the future, it is necessary to develop alternatives to accurately manage vaccination records for adults who are not eligible for state support, and regular adult vaccination rates should be calculated so that they can be used as evidence for the country's infection control policy.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.469-476
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• 2017

Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) and naming tests have been used clinically as screening and diagnostic tools for mild cognitive impairment and dementia. Researches in other countries have reported that residential areas would affect one's cognitive abilities. In Korean, however, there was no systematic studies on geographical influences to cognitive ability among a sample of urban/rural residents. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of urban/rural locality of residence on cognitive tests in normal elderly Korean. Residents aged 65 years and older (N=108) were administered the K-MMSE, confrontation/generative naming tests, and medical/socio-demographic interview. When comparing the total number of correct responses between urban residents and rural residents, the performances of rural group were significantly worse than those of the urban group in K-MMSE. Based on the results, our finding suggests that a factor of residential locality should be considered to examine the function and explain the cognitive decline in rural community-dwelling elders.

• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.17-29
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• 2011

Objectives: This study was to explore how elderly with chronic disease in a health management program managed their health and to describe their health management strategies. Methods: The data were collected through in-depth interviews, with a purposeful sample of twelve in an urban community. The collected information was analyzed through grounded theory approaches by Strauss and Corbin. Results: Though open coding process, 35 concepts, 17 subcategories, 8 categories were identified. As for the participation experience process, four stages had surfaced, namely, 'Perception of chronic disease', 'Concerned about health', 'Developing life pattern', 'Restoring health'. These processes were within 'Restoring Health Equilibrium', core category. Consequently, the participants revealed in restoring relationship-oriented life and settling in family-focused life. Conclusions: These findings have implications for the understanding of health promotion for the elderly with chronic diseases and contributing to make a basic data for developing elderly health management program.

• 한국노년학
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.529-546
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• 2009

Depression in old age not only is prevalent but also causes a considerable amount of burden in physical, psychosocial, and economic terms. Intervention, however, is often delayed due to the understanding that considers depressive symptoms as a normal process of aging or signs of physical illnesses. Since the recognition of symptoms often initiate one's help seeking process, a correct identification of symptoms can contribute to early detection and intervention to depression in oneself as well as in others. This study interviewed 104 older adults living in an urban area, and explored their ability to correctly identify depressive symptoms and factors related to identification. The study results show that respondents who were able to correctly identify symptoms of depression were only 14%, and the rest defined the symptoms as social, economic, and other psychological issues. Of the factors in the logistic regression model, age being 75 and over and mass media as source of mental health information affected negatively their ability to correctly identify symptoms; mental health education programs affected positively their ability. Based on these results, it is suggested that such strategies as employing a face-to-face provision of concrete information and counseling can be more effective than delivering information via large-scale lectures. Additionally, a future research deems necessary to conduct an in-depth examination of mental health/illness-related contents on mass media.

• Journal of the Korean Regional Science Association
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.3-23
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• 2020

This study aims to conceptualize the settlement inclusivity for overcoming social exclusion and the decline in quality of life of older people and to examine its effects on their mental health. The concept of the settlement inclusivity for older people focuses on the immediate environment around the place where they live. We proposed two domains for the conceptual framework; social domain that provides opportunities for community cohesion; spatial domain that provides security of residential area and access to basic services within walking distance. The social domain was represented by participation and interdependence, while the spatial domain by security and accessibility in the settlement inclusivity. Zero-inflated negative binomial regression model was constructed with 2017 National Survey of Older Koreans data to analyze the factors influencing depressive symptoms of older adults. The empirical results demonstrate that increased level of neighborhood network and social participation is associated with a decrease in the number of depressive symptoms. In addition, higher satisfaction in neighborhood environment and good accessibility to public transport/stores are associated with fewer depressive symptoms. Finally, housing condition and home ownership have a moderating effect on the relationship between social network/participation and depressive symptoms level, whereas they have no direct effects on depressive symptoms. This study demonstrates multi-dimensionally and mutually significant associations between settlement inclusivity and depressive symptoms for older people providing implications for urban planning and policies to improve mental well-being of older population.

• 한국노년학
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• v.39 no.3
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• pp.589-612
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• 2019

Korea has undergone rapid modernization and globalization process in the last few decades. The purpose of this study is to explore how shifting traditional values are impacting Korean elderlies and their perceptions of aging experience. In order to understand how changing social and cultural practices are affecting older adults, the similarities and differences among Korean elderlies living in three different geographical locations are examined in a multidimensional comparative framework. Life story interviews were conducted with 30 Korean elderlies (10 urban residents in Korea, 10 rural residents in Korea, and 10 residents in the US). Paying attention to within-group variation, this study particularly focused on analyzing the psychological, social, emotional, and spiritual experiences that made lives meaningful and resilient in old age in spite of physical decline. Based on analysis of narrative, the following major areas were identified as having positive or negative influence on aging experiences: physical health, emotional health, family relationship, work, leisure/social activity, and spirituality. Common themes of aging well across all settings included: "life not indebted to their offspring," "physical and mental health," and "dying well." Spirituality played a critical role in cultivating perspectives on life and accepting aging process, which were rooted in specific religious traditions participants identified (e.g., Christianity or Buddhism). Interesting differences in the meaning of work and leisure were also found between elderlies residing in Korea and the US immigrant context. One unique factor continuing to negatively affect Korean elderly in rural community was related to shame of not obtaining higher education. Implications for future research are also addressed.

• 한국노년학
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.593-605
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• 2018

This study examines factors that influence older drivers to consider stopping driving in advance and whose advice plays an important role in the driving cessation decision. Data came from a nationally representative cross-sectional survey of community-dwelling older adults (N=2,076). About two thirds reported that they have considered stopping driving (62.8%) and they preferred to decide by themselves (66.0%). Logistic regression results showed that women and residents in urban areas were twice as likely to consider voluntary driving cessation compared to their counterparts. Each one year increase in age contributed to the probability that respondents would consider driving cessation by five percent. Those with greater difficulties in ADLs due to chronic illnesses were also more likely to consider driving cessation. No sociodemographic and health factors were related to whether older drivers preferred to decide by themselves or listen to others. These results imply that policies to promote self-motivation to stop driving among older drivers would be effective. Furthermore, they suggest it could be important to help older drivers plan their driving cessation in advance while still at a young-old age, and that more attention needs to be paid to men and those living in rural areas among older drivers.

• 한국노년학
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.213-229
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• 2019

The purpose of this study was to examine various factors influencing the needs of Seoul's newly implemented outreach community services for older adults, and to suggest the direction of the outreach community health services in Seoul. A multi-level regression was conducted using data collected by face-to-face interviews from 1,000 individuals aged 65 and 70 in 17 districts, where participated in the Seoul's outreach community services. The results demonstrated that socioeconomic status (higher income and living alone), health status (having multiple chronic conditions and depression, lower health literacy), limited experience of the outreach community services, and low government trust at the individual level were associated with higher unmet need for the community outreach services. In addition, shorter participation period of the outreach services and financial independency at the district level were associated with higher unmet need for the services. The findings from this study implies the need for improving the quality of services by focusing on vulnerable groups such as individuals with lower income and worse health status. In addition, the outreach community health services may need to target individuals aged 66 to increasing efficiency of the services through utilizing results of life-cycle health checkup by the National Health Insurance Corporation.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.207-216
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• 2022

Purpose: The aim of this study was to identify differences and influencing factors in the level of life satisfaction among the urban community-dwelling elderly by age group. Methods: The study was conducted utilizing the secondary data of 2017 Seoul Survey in a cross-sectional design. Of 42,688 participants in total, the data of 7,927 adults aged 65 or older were analyzed. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, independent t-test, chi-square test, Pearson's correlation coefficients, and multiple linear regression. Results: There were significant differences between age groups, and it was found that the old elderly groups had significantly higher life satisfaction than the oldest elderly group (t=8.37, p<.011). In common, family and community factors influencing life satisfaction in the two age groups were companion animals (old elderly: β=.03, p=.002; oldest elderly: β=.06, p=.021), social network (old elderly: β=.10, p<.001; oldest elderly: β=.08, p=.008), and social support (old elderly: β=.05, p<.001; oldest elderly: β=.08, p=.005). Conclusion: Based on these results, social welfare and nursing care services focusing on social capital and age group-specific interventions are needed to improve life satisfaction of the elderly. This study might provide the possibility and evidence for a program to improve life satisfaction for the urban community-dwelling elderly, including social capital elements.