• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.476-482
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• 2023

Introduction: There is a growing global interest in the issue of precarious employment. We aimed to analyze the characteristics and socio-demographic distribution of precarious employment using a summative score approach. Methods: To operationalize precarious employment, we utilized data from the Korean Working Conditions Survey and focused on three distinct dimensions: employment insecurity, income inadequacy, and a lack of rights and protections. By constructing a summative scale ranging from -16 to 2, with lower scores indicating higher precariousness, we measured employment precariousness among Korean wage workers. To compare employment precariousness according to survey participant characteristics, we employed the Wilcoxon Rank Sum Test. Results: We analyzed a weighted number of 38,432 workers. The overall sample showed a median (Q1, Q3) summative scale score of -3 (-6, -1). The median summative score was lower for women compared to men (men: -2; women: -5; p < 0.001), as well as for young or older workers compared to middle-aged workers (young: -4; middle-aged: -2; older: -5; p < 0.001). Similarly, workers with lower educational levels (middle school or below: -8; high school: -5; college or above: -2; p < 0.001) and non-white collar workers (blue collar: -5; service/sales worker: -6; white collar: -2; p < 0.001) experienced higher levels of employment precariousness. Conclusion: Our findings indicate that certain vulnerable groups, such as women, young or older adults, workers with low educational attainment, and caregiving or low-skilled elementary workers, are disproportionately exposed to high employment precariousness. Active policy interventions are needed to improve the employment quality of vulnerable groups.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.11 no.6
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• pp.725-739
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• 2006

This study was performed to assess socioeconomic status and physical health status of middle-aged men ($40's{\sim}60's$) in Ganghwa country. We interviewed 1,267 middle-aged men (602 male, 665 female) by trained interviewers using structured questionnaires including demographic information, general health status, and anthro-pometric measurements. And all the data were analyzed by chi-square test, Student's t-test and one-way ANOVA using SPSS 12.0 version at p<0.05. These results were that males were higher than females in educational levels (p = 0.000) and most of them decreased according to age in educational levels (p =0.000) and family income (p =0.000), and prevalence of chronic diseases (p =0.000): stomach-duodenum disease, fracture, arthritis, or hypertension. They took to the health information on TV and radio and their health managing methods were exercise and walking and resting and diet regulation. Body Mass Index (BMI) was decreased in oder males (p =0.024) but increased in older females (p=0.001). In females, obesity prevalence of 40's, 50's and 60's was 31.3%. 49.7% and 48.0%, respectively. Waist circumference was the highest in 50's males (p=0.015), but hip circumference was the highest in 50's females (p =0.015). Waist-hip ratio (WHR) increased in older males (p = 0.028) and females (p= 0.000). In spite of the subjects were engaged in agriculture and fishery and had desirable lifestyles obesity rate especially abdominal obesity, was the serious problem. Socioeconomic status, especially education and income were related to SRH (p=0.006, p=0.000), chronic disease (p=0.000) and BMI (p=0.028, p=0.000). Therefore, it is necessary that the public health policy and nutrition education programs to alter lifestyles and to improve health preservation and health promotion in the farming and fishing communities.

• 한국노년학
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.397-420
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• 2021

The paper tried to determine relationships between volunteering and hypertension risks, symptom betterment, activity difficulty occurrences, and medicine treatment among middle-aged and older adults, with a prospective cohort study. Multilevel mixed-effects generalized linear models were used for the analysis of longitudinal panel data collected over 10 years from 2008 to 2018, using 5,867 cohort samples. The results showed that those who volunteered at least 200 hours per year were 3.4 times more lower than not-volunteering in risks of hypertension, those who volunteered yearly 50~99 hours were a lot more improved than not-volunteering in the symptom betterment, those who volunteered yearly at least 200 hours were 7.7 times lower than not-volunteering in activity difficulty occurrences, and those who volunteered yearly 50~99 hours were 2.5 times lower than not-volunteering in the occurrences of medicine treatment. These indicate that volunteering among middle-aged and older adults may have health benefits against incident hypertension. Finally the thesis discusses the study limitations, future directions of studies, and the practices implications.

• The Korean Journal of Rehabilitation Nursing
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.73-82
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• 2012

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify the influencing factors on mental health related quality of life (MHRQoL) in adults across the lifespan. Methods: A total of 688 Korean adults aged 19 years and older were selected. Data were collected by personal interviews or self report using structured questionnaires. For data analysis, t-test, ANOVA, Pearson's correlation coefficients and Stepwise multiple regression were used. Results: Mental health related quality of life (MHRQoL) differed significantly according to life cycle, especially showing a lower score in the elderly than others. In addition, elderly adulthood reported the highest stress and depression. The most significant predictors of MHRQoL in young and middle aged people were stress, depression, and subjective health status. Predictors of MHQoL in the elderly were stress and religion. Conclusion: The results indicate that MHRQoL of adult is associated with stress and depression. When the programs are developed to enhance mental health in elderly adulthood, religion should be considered as well as stress.

• Science of Emotion and Sensibility
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.51-60
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• 2024

Previous research reported a decline in facial emotion recognition with aging, but whether this was due to a genuine decline in recognition ability or own-age face recognition bias remains unclear, as most studies used stimuli from younger models. Thus, this study recruited older adults as participants and utilized stimuli identical to Kim (2021) study for direct comparison. Participants rated the similarity of pairs of facial expressions representing six emotions (anger, disgust, fear, happiness, neutrality, and sadness) from three age groups (young, middle-aged, and old). Multidimensional scaling analysis revealed that, regardless of age, all three core dimensions were confirmed, indicating similar representation of facial emotions across age groups. The older participants assigned lower arousal and dominance to younger faces expressing disgust and higher arousal and dominance to younger faces expressing fear, indicating that they rated younger faces' disgust expressions less strongly and overestimated fear expressions. These findings suggest that the own-age face recognition bias in facial expression perception may be emotion-specific rather than universally applicable to all emotions.

• Therapeutic Science for Rehabilitation
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.69-84
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• 2024

Objective : This study aimed to categorize the lifestyles of older adults into two types - healthy and unhealthy, and use machine learning to identify the personal values that influence these lifestyles. Methods : This cross-sectional study targeting middle-aged and older adults (55 years and above) living in local communities in South Korea. Data were collected from 300 participants through online surveys. Lifestyle types were dichotomized by the Yonsei Lifestyle Profile (YLP)-Active, Balanced, Connected, and Diverse (ABCD) responses using latent profile analysis. Personal value information was collected using YLP-Values (YLP-V) and analyzed using machine learning to identify the relative importance of personal values on lifestyle types. Results : The lifestyle of older adults was categorized into healthy (48.87%) and unhealthy (51.13%). These two types showed the most significant difference in social relationship characteristics. Among the machine learning models used in this study, the support vector machine showed the highest classification performance, achieving 96% accuracy and 95% area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. The model indicated that individuals who prioritized a healthy diet, sought health information, and engaged in hobbies or cultural activities were more likely to have a healthy lifestyle. Conclusion : This study suggests the need to encourage the expansion of social networks among older adults. Furthermore, it highlights the necessity to comprehensively intervene in individuals' perceptions and values that primarily influence lifestyle adherence.

• 한국노년학
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.363-388
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• 2019

This study examined the influence of subjective age on subjective well-being and depression, and the mediating effect of meaning in life. A survey of 394 adults aged 40 or older completed a questionnaire concerning subjective age perception, meaning in life, subjective well-being, and depression. The main results are summarized as follows. First, the analysis of subjective age according to the sociodemographic variables showed that middle-aged and elderly people, who were highly educated and had good perceived health status, felt themselves younger than their counterparts did. Second, a young subjective age had a positive effect on meaning in life and subjective well-being while negatively influencing depression. Third, meaning in life significantly mediated the relationship among subjective age, subjective well-being, and depression. In other words, the younger the middle- and old-aged adults perceived themselves, the more meaning they found in life, which led to higher subjective well-being and lower depression. These findings suggest that, as people get older, perceiving themselves as younger than their chronological age can protect their mental health, and meaning in life plays an important role in the process.

• The Korean Journal of Health Service Management
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.179-190
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• 2011

This study examined the association between marital status and mental health(depression, and suicidal ideation) of Korean adults by age and sex, using 2005 Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey data. Differences of marital status in depression and suicidal ideation were assessed by age and sex-specific prevalence according to each stage of the life course. Our results indicated that adults who divorced, separated, and widowed had significantly higher risk of poor mental health than married adults. Men with no spouse at the stage of middle and older aged are reported higher in depressive symptom than married men. For the suicidal ideation, men with no spouse had higher risk of suicidal ideation through all stage of life course. Women were more likely to report depressive symptom and suicidal ideation than men through all stage of life course. But we could not found the mental health advantage of marriage among Korean women through all stage of life course. Based on findings, the study clearly indicate that the implication of marriage on mental health could be different for adults of different age group and sex.

• Journal of Family Resource Management and Policy Review
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.13-25
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• 2024

The rate of single-person households has been increasing all over the world, and there has been a particularly rapid increase in them in Korea. Single-person households show unique and various characteristics related to the reasons for becoming a single-person household, gender, life cycle, and so on. Thus, research needs to focus on the specific groups of single-person households in order to provide tailored policies and programs. This study segmented single-person households in three groups based on life cycle: young, middle-aged, and older adults. Differences in the level of healthy lifestyle, as well as factors affecting that, were investigated according to the groups. The data were collected in 2022, with 237 respondents from single-person households in Kimpo. Descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA, and multiple regression analysis were conducted. The overall level of healthy lifestyle was found to be significantly higher for young adults compared to older adults. Results from multiple regression show that significant factors related to the healthy lifestyle of single-person households were gender, educational attainment, whether becoming a single-person household was voluntary, and whether the respondents had experienced discrimination as a single-person household. Significant factors differed by the sub-categories of the healthy lifestyle scale. This study has implications related to discovering differences in the level of healthy lifestyles of single-person households through examining the factors affecting it according to life cycle.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Integrative Medicine
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.37-45
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• 2021

Purpose : This study aimed to present normative data and cut-off points for older Korean adults completing the Montreal Cognitive Assessment - Korean (MoCA-K), which is used as a screening test for mild cognitive impairment in Korea. Methods : A total of 195 healthy adults ≥60 years were recruited. All participants completed the MoCA-K and the Korean - Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE-K) to assess their cognitive function. Participants were divided into six groups based on their age: 60-64 years, 65~69 years, 70~74 years, 75~79 years, 80~84 years, and 85~89 years. Results : The results revealed that MoCA-K score decreased significantly with age (mean score ± standard deviation [SD]; 27.63±2.80 in subjects aged 60~64 years; 27.00±2.39 in subjects aged 65~69 years; 24.94±2.96 in subjects aged 70~74 years; 24.74±3.37 in subjects aged 75~79 years; 22.59±4.72 in subjects aged 80~84 years; and 18.83±5.38 in subjects aged 85~89 years; p<.001). Additionally, MoCA-K score also increased significantly with educational level (mean score±standard deviation [SD]; 19.95±4.78 in no formal education group; 24.95±2.22 in elementary school graduated group; 26.35±2.72 in middle school graduated group; 28.32±1.36 in high school graduated group; and 28.50±1.51 in more than college graduated group; p<.001). The optimal cut-off points were 24/25 for 60~69 years old group, 21/22 for 70~79 years old group, 17/18 for 80~84 years old group, and 13/14 for 85~89 years old group. The optimal cut-off points were 15/16 for individuals who were illiterate, 22/23 for individuals with 6 years of education, 22/24 for individuals with 9 years of education, and 26/27 for individuals with 12 or more years of education. Conclusions : This study presents normative data and cut-off points for the MoCA-K in older Korean adults. This data will facilitate more accurate detection and follow-up of the risk of mild cognitive impairment in this population, taking into consideration age and education. Future studies are required that should focus on the cut-off score on the level of education according to age.