• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.529-537
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• 2022

The purpose of this study was to analyze the relationship between social participation activities, cognitive function, and depression of middle and old single-person households in consideration of social problems such as aging population and increasing single-person households. For the analysis, path analysis and multi-group analysis were conducted. As a result of the analysis, it was found that social participation activities of middle and old single-person households reduced depression through increased cognitive function, and the positive effects of social participation activities were stronger in groups of dementia. Based on these results, we discussed ways to promote social participation activities, implications for developing programs that can help cognitive function or mental health, and suggested the need for programs or treatment methods to promote social participation rather than isolated treatment in nursing facilities.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.261-268
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• 2022

Recently, the number of elderly living alone suffering from loneliness and depression is also increasing significantly due to the rapid aging of the population and nuclear families. In this paper, we propose a smart aging system that increases life satisfaction by providing the elderly with the optimal service tailored to the elderly with the help of IT according to their residential environment and health status. It is possible to provide an advanced customized support system for the elderly by fully utilizing IoT, AI, and Metaverse techniques not only for the elderly who want to live an active life in society but also for the elderly who need care in a nursing hospital. The proposed system provides human satisfaction by providing social connection in real space and virtual space in accordance with the residential environment and health status to the elderly suffering from loneliness in hospital (hospital care) facilities and at home. This paper proposes a new path for future-oriented welfare policy for the elderly by providing a user-customized smart aging system by combining AI and Metaverse technology with a rapidly changing social environment.

• Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.477-483
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• 2022

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to provide basic data that would inform the direction of oral rehabilitation and how to expand of the role of dental hygienists in Japan. Methods: A systematic literature review was conducted on the role of dental hygienists in the field of oral rehabilitation in Japan. Results: Japan has been making academic and practical developments in the field of oral rehabilitation for over 30 years, and has been gradually implementing a fee support policy since the 1990s. In addition, Japan has been operating a dental hygienist system specializing in oral rehabilitation since 2006. The related work was being carried out with the dental hygienist's expertise in the field of rehabilitation medical treatment secured. Dental hygienists work full-time at long-term care facilities for the elderly in addition to conducting oral care activities under the local comprehensive care system, in the areas of convalescence and acute rehabilitation, as well as in the field of visiting rehabilitation. It can be seen that, in the field of nursing care, they are specialized in oral care tasks for the elderly. Conclusions: In the future, a policy and related fee system should be gradually prepared to expand the role of dental hygienists in the field of oral rehabilitation that can contribute to improving oral health linked to systemic diseases.

• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.58-67
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• 2023

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to analyze the factors associated with long-term hospitalized patients in long-term care hospitals using the quality assessment data for long-term care hospitals by the Health Insurance Review. Methods: Among 1,376 long-term care hospitals, frequency analysis and descriptive statistics were used to analyze the characteristics of these hospitals. Multiple linear regression was conducted to examine the associations between infrastructure characteristics, medical personnel characteristics, health outcomes and the proportion of long-term hospitalized patients. Results: The research findings indicate that the number of patients per doctor, the number of patients per nurse, and the number of patients per nursing staff were positively associated with the proportion of long-term hospitalized patients. Among health outcomes, a higher proportion of patients with more than a 5% weight loss compared to the previous month and the proportion of patients showing improvement in ADL, were more likely to have a lower proportion of long-term hospitalized patients. However the proportion of diabetic patients with HbA1c test results within the appropriate range was positively associated with the proportion of long-term hospitalized patients. Conclusion: The present study results provide fundamental data for the establishment of policies for long-term care hospitals. Based on this study, it is important to suggest screening methods for unnecessary long-term hospitalizations, such as sufficient medical personnel to improve the quality of care in long-term care hospitals. It is also necessary to clearly separate the roles of medical institutions and long-term care facilities and implement policies to support patients' social reintegration.

• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.223-238
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• 2024

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to establish a fruit-cooking method suitable for older adults with masticatory dysfunction. MATERIALS/METHODS: Five types of fruits were selected to make fruit jelly and puree: apple, sweet persimmon, mandarin, Korean melon, and watermelon. Recipes were selected based on the Korean Industrial Standard (KS) for senior-friendly foods (KS H 4897), which classifies foods into 3 levels (L1-L3) based on their hardness and viscosity. RESULTS: In South Korea, senior-friendly foods are classified into 3 stages based on their hardness. Stage 1 is for foods that are able to eat with teeth (hardness greater than 50,000 N and less than 500,000 N), Stage 2 is for foods that are able to eat with gums (hardness greater than 20,000 N and less than 50,000 N), and Stage 3 is for foods that are able to eat with the tongue (hardness less than 20,000 N). As a result of measuring the hardness by varying the shape of the fruit, it was found that nearly all fruits could be eaten fresh by chewing with the teeth (L1) but did not meet the KS for mastication using the gums (L2) or tongue (L3), so the cooking method was selected as fruit jelly and fruit puree. Only sweet persimmon, which had a hardness of 61,624-496,393 N, was not suitable for consumption in fresh fruit, unprocessed form. Based on their hardness measurements, fruit jellies (27,869 to 36,343 N) and fruit purees (315 to 1,156 N) met the L2 and L3 requirements, respectively. The viscosity results of all fruit purees met the L3 requirement. CONCLUSION: These results offer a simple cooking method to prepare texture-modified fruits suitable for safe consumption by older adults living with masticatory difficulties in general households and nursing facilities.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.10 no.5
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• pp.459-464
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• 2024

The purpose of this study is to understand the effects on patient safety knowledge, patient safety performance confidence, and attitude toward patient safety after operating a interprofessional education program for 3 rd and 4 th grade healthcare students with clinical practice experience. We operated a interprofessional education program for 6 days, and the program consisted of job understanding, patient safety risk prediction training, and scenario-based patient safety experience. Patient safety knowledge(t=-5.01, p<.001), patient safety performance confidence(t=-6.75, p<.001), and patient safety attitude(t=-2.59, p=.013) increased statistically significantly after applying the six-day the interprofessional education program. Based on the results of this study, it is necessary to develop programs and evaluate their effectiveness by diversifying educational topics for interprofessional education program. In addition, it is necessary to expand and operate not only for university students but also for new employees working in medical facilities

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.768-781
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• 1996

The problem of care of patients and families with Alzheimer's disease has become a conscious raising social policy issue in Korea. The government of the Republic of Korea has become cognizant of the situation and has begun searching for ways to remedy it. Thus, there is a need for a comprehensive under-standing of the situation in which patients and their families are struggling and the enormous problems of care. With a realization of the urgent need, this study was done to investigate the situation and the care needs of families with patients with Alzheimer's Disease, and to compare the effectiveness of services utilized by the families in terms of cost and effects on patient's conditions and on family live. The Subjects for the study were 29 families with hospitalized patients, 25 families utilizing hospital outpatient clinics, 14 families utilizing day care facilities, and 16 families with homebound patients. A total of 84 families were interviewed by four trained interviewers using structured and semistructured questionnaires. The data produced from these interviews included : the patient's stage of Alzheimer's disease, patient's bizarre behavior, hours spent on patient care per day, family burden and quality of life, direct and indirect costs encountered in the care of patients, and the families' evaluation of the effectiveness of the services received. The data were analyzed to determine the relationships between family charactersistics, patient's conditions and services utilization. The effectiveness of each of the service entities was assessed through families evaluation and hoped for service and comparisons were made between services in terms of the cost-effectiveness ratios. After initial comparison of cost-effectiveness ratios, further analysis was done to compare between groups for incremental effectiveness for each incremental unit of cost to determine the most cost-effective service entities. The findings of the study are as fellows : 1. The choice of living arrangement and the types of services are a function of the stage of Alzheimer's condition and the economic status of the family. 2. Comparision of the cost of care showed that most expenses were encountered in by families with hospitalization, families using outpatient services, and families using day care services in that order. The least expense was involved in the care of homebound patients. The economic burden felt by families was in the same order as expenses. 3. The average number of hours spent on daily patient care was 9.9 hours for the outpatient clinic users, 9.7 hours for homebound patients, and 5.4 hours for day care users. 4. There were significant differences in the patient's conditions (CDRL), bizarre behaviors and the families's burden by living arrangement and /or types of service. However, no significant difference was found between groups in the family's quality of life. 5. The families rated the services of day care center as most effective for the care of the patients and families, except for a few families who had experienced some improvement in the patient's conditions. The outpatient clinic users expressed psychological comforts mainly in that the patient was being taken care of. For those hospitalized patients, families expressed the comfort of being relieved of the burden of care and that the patient is being professionally cared for. Form the analysis of the costs, hours of patient care, patient's bizarre behaviors, family's quality of life and burdens, and family's evaluation of services, it is concluded that up to the mid stage of Alzheimer's condition, the utilization of day care center services is found to be the most cost-effective, and toward the end stage of the Alzheimer's disease, it is hoped that there will be a establishment of long term or short term in-patient facilities for the protection of patients and preservation of the integrity of families for less cost. Thus. it was concluded that the family centered system of care is the most effective for Korea with systematic support systems developed for the care of patients and their families according to the needs of families as the patient's condition deteriorates.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.89-102
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• 1978

Owing to the development of modern science, prolonging man's life, the sudden increase of population and betterment of the standard of living has increased health needs. In order to fulfill these health needs, more active plans for developing health should be made. Health education is one of the methods at hand that can improve the health behavior of the community and the individual through the contact of individuals with their groups. Proper understanding of the characteristics of the sampled group and participation of individuals within the community for the development of their health plan are needed for efficient health education. This study was attempted for the purpose of presenting some data helpful for pre-paring the fundamentals of a health education plan that can improve personal health maintenance practice of a community through efficient health education by investigating the relationship between the response of subjects to personal health maintenance practice and selected decisive factors in personal health maintenance practice. The subjects for this study were a systematic sample of 120 housewives selected from 600 housewives from B Zone Apt. Younhi-3-Dong in Seoul. Data was collected for 4 days from May 16th to May 19th, 1578 through personal interviews with questionnaires by well trained interviewers. Percentage, t-test and stepwise multiple regression analysis by use of EDPS were employed for statistical analysis. Results of this study can be summarized : 1. General characteristics of subjects Subjects over 20 and below 40 years of age formed 62.5% of the toed and the rest were subjects of 40 years and upward. 76.7% of the subjects have less than 4 children. 51.3% of the subjects had completed at least the senior high school course. 2. The response of subjects to personal health maintenance practice. Ratios of personal health maintenance practice to the maximum score for each category are as follows; 84.1% in the category of population and family planning, which was the highest ratio; 82.4% in the prevention of accidents; 68.0% in control of communicable disease; 67.8% in personal health care and habits of daily life, 64.3% in mental health and 52.5% in control of parasites, which was the lowest. 3. The response of subjects to selected decisive factors. in personal health maintenance practice. The arithmetic mean of the score for each decisive factor was as follows: the mutual relation between family members marked 18.33, which is under 73,3% of the maximum score; the degree of interest in health marked 34.48, 70.0% of the maximum score: the degree of utilization and demand for health care facilities marked 25.79 or 64.5% of the maximum score and health maintenance of the family marked 11.58, 43.6% of the maximum score. 4. The relationship between personal health maintenance practice and general characteristics of subjects. 1) There was a significant difference in the numbers of children. (t = 1.83, d.f. =117, p< 0.1) 2) There was a significant difference in the contact rates with mass-media, (t = 5.02, d.f. = 118, p< 0,05) 5. The multiple correlation between personal health maintenance practice and their selected decisive factors. 1) The factor“the degree of interest in health”could account for personal health maintenance practice in 43.6% of the sample. (R = 0.6602, R²= 0,4359, F = 91.1678, p< 0.001) 2) When the factor,“health maintenance of family”is added to this, it accounts for 51.2% of personal health maintenance practice. (R = 0.7158, R²= 0.5124, F = 61.4653, p< 0.001) 3) When the factor,“mutual relations between family members”is also included, it accounts for 53.7% of personal health maintenance practice. (R = 0.7324, R²= 0.5365, F = 44.7509, p< 0.001) 4) When the factor, “the degree of utilization and demand for health care facilities”is included, it accounts for 55.1% of personal health maintenance practice. (R = 0.7421, R²= 0.5507, F = 35.2430, p< 0.001).

• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.1-33
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• 1998

The purpose of this thesis is to study theoretical access to the methods that have been used for the research of occupational stress, thereby providing management methods of occupational stress of hospital workers. With a stress model of hospital workers set up from the viewpoint of organization management, 929 sets of questionnaires were collected from intern doctors, resident doctors, nurses, nursing aides, pharmacists, medical technicians, workers in patient affairs(reception and medical insurance workers), administrators and clerks from the 8 hospitals in Seoul with more than 500 beds. Upon variance analysis, correlation analysis and regression analysis of the collected questionnaires, this work examined how differences in stress caused by specific occupations and formulated a method of stress management for the hospital workers. The results are as follows. 1) If some duties of the nurses suffering from role-overloaded stress are transferred to the nursing aides dissatisfied with insufficient role, the two grunting groups can be satisfied at the same time. It is also necessary to transfer some jobs of the overloaded workers in patient affairs to the administrators, or the other way around. To reduce stress of conflict and ambiguity of role caused by the obscure division of roles between the workers, the role of each occupation should be delineated and the clear division of roles should be translated into action strictly according to that delineated. 2) Stress of inefficiency of organization from which the student doctors suffer can be relieved by management of participation. If they have access to the process of decision-making in general hospital affairs and consequently their understanding and the autonomy of job performance are promoted, such stress will be reduced. 3) To cope with stress of career development from which nurses, medical technicians, administrators, workers in patient affairs suffer, it is necessary to establish whether they have a chance to revive their careers, whether there are any ways of remotivation for less contributive workers, and whether they encourage each other to develope their careers. If they are given a chance to develope their careers, such stress will be relieved. 4) Pharmacists, suffering from stresses of living and personal relations, have strong cohesive power among themselves and organize a well-integrated team; thereby reducing the stress of personal relations and increasing productivity. 5) For administrators and student doctors confined to lesser social supports and for nurses and workers in patient affairs whose recognition of stress and job satisfaction are affected by social supports, emotional and informational supports for job performance help alleviate an individual's mental, and physical stress. 6) In addition to the above-mentioned stress-management methods, if an organizational coping strategy is provided according to the types of stress from the general viewpoint of the whole group of hospital workers, it would be of great help to managing stress. For example, the redesign of jobs, the management of objective, the improvement of working environment, the formation of an autonomous working group and various working plans can be set up for those who suffer from stress related to inappropriate role, while career counseling and development of career process can be provided for those dissatisfied with career development. Participation in the process of decision-making and the restructuring of the organization are needed for those who suffer from stress of malfunctioning organization, whereas creation of a supportive organizational atmosphere is desired for those who feel stressed due to personal relations. As well, such organizational coping strategies. as the increase of welfare facilities, seminars and educational programs and provision of health-promotion facilities can be provided.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.128-136
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• 2007

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate the current state of the home-based cancer patient management project of public health centers throughout the country. The results of the investigation is employed to identify obstacles to the execution of the program and, finally, to develop an efficient management program of home-based cancer patients. Methods: Data on the home-based cancer patient management project were collected and analyzed through visiting interviews or telephone interviews with 225 public health centers throughout the country for six months from July to December, 2006. Results: Obstacles to the present execution of the home-based cancer patient management project were identified. Some of them are : (1) patients' low trust in cancer patient management by local health centers, (2) absence of programs customized to local communities, (3) lack of personnel and vehicles for home-based cancer patient management, (4) lack of education program for personnel in charge of home-based cancer patient management, (5) problems in public health doctors, weak connection to private medical institutions, (6) absence of medical institutions and hospice facilities for cancer patients, and (7) non-standardized volunteer workers, so on. Considering all these problems, some effective management methods are proposed. The basic concept is to keep the autonomy and variety of the local helath centers. And based on this concept, three models of (1) public health center controlled model, (2) medical institutions and hospice facilities-entrusted model and (3) medical institutions and hospice facilities-cooperative model are developed. Conclusion: By adopting an adequate model among proposed three models, the public health centers are expected to achieve an efficient utilization of material resources and manpower. In addition, by inventing their own programs that are proper for the local societies, they can improve the home-based cancer patient management.