• Korean Journal of Applied Biomechanics
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.1-9
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• 2007

Walking is not only an essential component of the human mobility, but also is a good exercise. Inability to walk freely can reduce an individual's quality of life and independence substantially. Being a relatively low impact activity, walking is particularly good for the elderly and research has shown that regular walking in the elderly reduces the chance of fall-related injuries and mental diseases as well. In spite of the documented benefits of regular walking, it is still difficult to walk without the aid of assistive devices for the frail elderly who have lower extremity problems. Assistive walking devices(AWD), such as crutches, canes, hiking-poles, T-Poles and walkers, are often prescribed to the elderly to make their walking be safe and efficient. Many researchers have demonstrated the effects of AWDs such as reducing lower extremity loading, improved dynamic/gait stability, yet, no study has been done for gait pattern when the elderly gait with AWDs. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine whether T-Poles, one of the AWDs, change the elderly gait pattern. Eight community-dwelling female elderly participated in this study. Laboratory kinematics during walking with T-Poles(PW) and with out T-Poles(NPW) was assessed. PW showed significant increase in step width, stride length, gait velocity and decrease in swing time. No significances were found in lower body joint angles but meaningful trend and pattern were found. Maybe the reason was due to the participants. Our participants were healthy enough so that the effect of T-Poles was minimum. PW also showed typical gait phases which are no single support phase during a gait cycle. It indicates that walking with T-Poles may guarantee safe and confident walking to the frail elderly.

• Journal of Audiology & Otology
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.83-88
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• 2019

Background and Objectives: Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is a disorder that usually occurs in the elderly, leading to dementia in some progressive cases. The purpose of this study is to examine the utility of central auditory processing tests as early diagnostic tools for identifying the elderly with MCI. Subjects and Methods: This study was conducted on 20 elderly patients with MCI and 20 healthy matched peers. The speech perception ability in a quiet environment and in the presence of background noise and also temporal resolution were assessed by using Speech Perception in Noise (SPIN) and Gap in Noise (GIN) tests, respectively. Results: The results indicated that the ability to understand speech in a quiet environment did not differ significantly between the two groups. However, SPIN at the three signal-to-noise ratios and the temporal resolution scores were significantly different between the two groups (p<0.001). Conclusions: Individuals with MCI appear to have poorer speech comprehension in noise and a lower temporal resolution than those of the same age, but without cognitive defects. Considering the utility of these tests in identifying cognitive problems, we propose that since the GIN test seems to be less influenced by intervening factors, this test can therefore, be a useful tool for the early screening of elderly people with cognitive problems.

• Korean Journal of Audiology
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.83-88
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• 2019

Background and Objectives: Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is a disorder that usually occurs in the elderly, leading to dementia in some progressive cases. The purpose of this study is to examine the utility of central auditory processing tests as early diagnostic tools for identifying the elderly with MCI. Subjects and Methods: This study was conducted on 20 elderly patients with MCI and 20 healthy matched peers. The speech perception ability in a quiet environment and in the presence of background noise and also temporal resolution were assessed by using Speech Perception in Noise (SPIN) and Gap in Noise (GIN) tests, respectively. Results: The results indicated that the ability to understand speech in a quiet environment did not differ significantly between the two groups. However, SPIN at the three signal-to-noise ratios and the temporal resolution scores were significantly different between the two groups (p<0.001). Conclusions: Individuals with MCI appear to have poorer speech comprehension in noise and a lower temporal resolution than those of the same age, but without cognitive defects. Considering the utility of these tests in identifying cognitive problems, we propose that since the GIN test seems to be less influenced by intervening factors, this test can therefore, be a useful tool for the early screening of elderly people with cognitive problems.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.158-171
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• 2000

The elderly population will increase from 5.8% in 1996 to 12.5% in 2020. The related problems of health will also become a very important issue in the future. Therefore. it is important to address the problems of geriatic nursing and geriatic health. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship among self-efficacy, social support and depression of the poor elderly. The subjects of this study were 42 poor elderly in Tae Jeon city. The data were analyzed by the SPSSWIN computer program and include AONVA. Pearson Correlation, frequency analysis. The Cronbach Alpha of self-efficacy tools was .8297, social support tools was .9187 and depression tools was .8887. The data were collected through personal interviews using a questionnaire from September 27 to October 23. 1999. The conclusion of this study are summarized as follows: 1. There were mean scores for self-efficacy at $55.92{\pm}11.84$ for social support $86.00{\pm}18.43$ and for depression $60.31{\pm}15.61$. 2. There was a significant positive correlation between self-efficacy and social support(r= .361. p<.05) in the poor elderly. There was a significant negative correlation between social support and depression(r= -.640, p<,01), self-efficacy and depression(r= -.182) in the poor elderly. 3. In a significant test in the general characters of the subjects and in the higher social support level. we obtained the following results: living with partner is. have son is. living family members is. the higher economic level is. 4. In a significant test in the general characters of the subjects and in the lower depression level, we can obtained the following results: The old man is. living with partner is. living family members is. the higher economic level is, the higher health level is.

• KIEAE Journal
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.13-20
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• 2009

Globally, the issue of aging populations has become a significant one, and while Korea is not yet in the same position as many other countries, it has been changing rapidly into an aged society. Korea will be an aged society and this will increase the problems which are associated with an aged society. So we are in the urgent situation of looking the solutions for aged society problems. On this theme, a society which is rapidly aging has a growing interest with developing solutions for suitable elderly housing. A possible model of elderly housing which accomplished this is shared housing. Shared housing is more integrated in local society, and is designed like a small-scale house concept. Also as it provides benefits for social, economical and practical to the continuance of independent life, the shared housing which gives the possibility of sustainable life in the local society is a unique housing type and not only an extension of a housing community, but also it an alternative plan of social integration. This study is one of the methods for the proposal of an alternative plan for the sustainable housing using a small group workshop. It aims to understand the housing preferences of seniors and introduce various shared housing types to a low-income senior group and offer new information of the shared housing for the future. So I give the source that senior could think about their housing plan and what is housing preference type. I anticipate that the better elderly environments, facilities and service to the elderly shared housing development in the future.

• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.145-160
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• 1996

The purpose of this study was to identify caregiving situations and to examine resources for adjustment among family caregivers of the elderly with dementia. Thereby the study can provide the basic information for the development of education programs for family caregivers through in-depth interview. The main result of this study was as follows : 1) The major problems identified by family caregivers I caring for the elderly with dementia were related to care recipient's toileting and to care recipient's confusion and wandering. 2) The family caregiver expressed feelings of burden including chronic fatigue, depression, guilt and frustration. 3) The factors influencing the adjustment of family caregivers for demented elderly were quality of relationship, motivation for caregiving, circumstances of caregiving, social support and coping strategies.

• Journal of The Korea Institute of Healthcare Architecture
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.51-59
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• 2013

Purpose: At the moment, a lot of poor older people live in permanent rental housing in Korea. But many rental apartments are not suitable for elderly living because most of them have many problems related to the lack of accessibility and adaptability for older people with physical and mental disabilities. So it is necessary to upgrade the old permanent rental housing for convenience of elderly living. The purpose of this paper is to construct basic data for remodeling of worn out and small rental housing block in order to realize the concept of "Aging in Place". Methods: Questionnaires and interviews about elderly living have been conducted on 104 elderly who live in Suwon Wooman permanent rental apartment block which was constructed 21 years ago. From the collected data, dining pattern, inconvenient area, small area, satisfaction level on unit area and demand for unit expansion type have been analysed in order to find out the direction for remodeling of permanent rental apartment unit. Results: The problems of existing permanent rental apartment can be summarized into improper laundry space, small dining area, inconvenient bath and so on. According to the family size, the elderly resident has the different preference about the expansion type of his resident unit. Big families usually want to enlarge their living unit though they pay for additional monthly rental fee. Implications: Lifetime home concept adopting Universal Design has to be applied to the whole residential block especially to the social rental housing. And this concept had better be expanded to Lifetime neighbor design.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.9 no.12
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• pp.94-102
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• 2009

As an advance in medical technology development is being made, and people are increasingly aware of the importance of health, related investments and people's average life expectancy rise, which in turn leads to an increase in elderly people. Also, with a growing number of elderly people enjoying their leisure activities, the utilization of multimedia contents using computers is on the increase, leading to an activated research into the establishment of digital culture for the elderly people. This paper proposes a Korean text input system to enable the elderly to utilize digital contents. Text input interface has conventionally depended on keyboards. However, the keyboard wherein many keys are dispersed creates problems for the elderly, such as a protracted recognition of keys and a lowered concentration when they use the keyboard. To address these problems, in this paper, the grip type controller interface for console games was used and a corresponding alphabet location algorithm was developed. To verify these efforts, a simulator was developed to test 20 elderly people; as a result, their satisfaction over and convenience of using the grip type interface increased.

• Proceedings of the Korea Contents Association Conference
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• 2009.05a
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• pp.208-214
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• 2009

As an advance in medical technology development is being made, and people are increasingly aware of the importance of health, related investments and people's average life expectancy rise, which in turn leads to an increase in elderly people. Also, with a growing number of elderly people enjoying their leisure activities, the utilization of multimedia contents using computers is on the increase, leading to an activated research into the establishment of digital culture for the elderly people. This paper proposes a Korean text input system to enable the elderly to utilize digital contents. Text input interface has conventionally depended on keyboards. However, the keyboard wherein many keys are dispersed creates problems for the elderly, such as a protracted recognition of keys and a lowered concentration when they use the keyboard. To address these problems, in this paper, the grip type controller interface for console games was used and a corresponding alphabet location algorithm was developed. To verify these efforts, a simulator was developed to test 20 elderly people; as a result, their satisfaction over and convenience of using the grip type interface invreased.

• Journal of Family Resource Management and Policy Review
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.43-65
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• 2007

This research aims at finding out how spare time activity, relationships with their children and loneliness affect the satisfaction of life of elderly people who have no spouse. To begin, according to the survey, in the case of elderly people who have no spouse, male elderly people feel more loneliness, lower unification with their offspring, and do less activity in their spare time than female elderly people. The elderly people with a higher educational level, feel less loneliness and have a close relationship with their offspring. When elderly people believe in a religion, they participate in positive activities in their spare time and have a higher satisfaction of life. Secondly, the less the elderly people have for a monthly income, the more they feel a deep sense of isolation. However, if the elderly have a sufficient monthly income, they spend their spare time on positive activities and feel a higher sense of satisfaction in their lives. These results show that economic situation is an important factor for elderly people to maintain good mental health and a good quality of life. Thirdly, the loneliness of elderly people who have no spouse was influenced by whether the elderly people have children or not. If an elderly person loses their spouse through death, they can find themselves in a desperate situation and feeling very isolated. Most elderly people who have no spouse want to live with their offspring and depend on their sons and daughters economically and psychologically. However, the elderly people living alone have lower satisfaction of life because of economic and psychological problems. Therefore, the results shows that the life satisfaction of elderly people who have no spouse was influenced by living with their children and having a close relationship with them. The elderly people who have no spouse feel hopelessness and rely increasingly on their sons and daughters. The elderly people who don't have a sufficient monthly income not only feel more loneliness than other elderly people, but are also restricted in their spare time activities. It proves that the economic situation(monthly income) is also an important factor to maintain personal relationships.