• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.235-244
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• 2024

This study is a descriptive exploratory research aimed at identifying factors influencing the health-related quality of life(HRQOL) in middle-aged and senior-aged patients with complex chronic diseases. The study participants were extracted from the Korean Medical Panel annual data. A total of 2,408 patients, with two or more chronic diseases were included. The data were analyzed using STATA 15.0 software through descriptive statistics, t-tests, ANOVA, and multiple linear regression analysis. The research findings indicate that in middle-aged patients, educational level, household income, economic activity, stress, experience of despair, and basic needs satisfaction positively influence health-related quality of life. On the other hand, types of medical insurance, depressive feelings, and suicidal ideation exert a negative impact. In the case of senior-aged patients, positive influences on health-related quality of life were observed for educational level, household income, economic activity, alcohol consumption, stress, experience of despair, and basic needs satisfaction. Conversely, negative influences were noted for marital status, types of medical insurance, depressive feelings, and suicidal ideation. Therefore, in order to enhance the HRQOL for middle-aged and senior-aged patients with complex chronic diseases, tailored policies considering individual and age-specific characteristics should be formulated.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.99-104
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• 2008

As a part of improving early response system for senior emergency patients in rural areas in preparation for accelerated transition of Korea into aged society, this study seeks to make effective use of town broadcasting equipments and improve conventional educational ways for the first aid for senior people to boost up availability of private rescue personnel, so that it can contribute to improving capacity to early response to potential occurrence of emergency situations. In addition, this study focuses on profiling current activities of 119 geriatric Emergency Medical Services available in Korea, and also exploring possible ways to improve emergency services for senior safety which can play useful roles of social safeguard in imminent aged society as well as efficient ways to build up infrastructure for senior safety on the basis of opening up senior safety center.

• Journal of Korean Biological Nursing Science
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.277-285
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• 2015

Purpose: This study was to verify the effects of a fluid therapy education program for aged stroke patients for preventing dehydration, pyuria and bacteriuria. Methods: The study employed a non-equivalent control group pretest-posttest design in quasi experimental basis. Subjects were 38 stroke patients (20 in the experimental group and 18 in the control group) older than 65, hospitalized in a senior care center in S city, Korea. Results: The amount of daily average fluid intake, normal ratio of blood urea nitrogen-creatinine ratio, serum $Na^+$ and urine white blood cells were increased significantly in the experimental group. Normal ratio of bacteriuria increased in the experimental group, but not significantly. Conclusion: The education program is considered to be an effective nursing intervention tool for preventing dehydration and urinary tract infections which related to the secondary wellness of aged stroke patients. However, longer term study is necessary for better quality of nursing and developing more specific education programs for aged stroke patients usually hospitalized for a long period of time.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
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• v.44 no.2
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• pp.46-51
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• 2012

We analyzed the concentration of Aspartate Aminotransferase (AST), Alanine Aminotransferase (ALT), Alkaline Phosphatase (ALP), Gamma Glutamyl Transferase (GGT), total protein (TP), albumin, total cholesterol (TC) and triglyceride in sera of patients (n=455) aged 60 years and older with hyperglycemia (${\geq}120mg/dL$ in serum). The average concentration of biochemicals in patient group was compared with those in reference group. Our data showed that the average concentrations of AST and TC in sera of senior patients with hyperglycemia were significantly increased by 27.5% (P<0.05) and 82% (P<0.05) in total group, 38.5% (P<0.05) and 75.0% (P<0.05) in sixty years' group, 16.0% (P<0.05) and 89.7% (P<0.05) in seventy years' group and 27.0% (P<0.05) and 79.5% (P<0.05) in eighty years' group, respectively. Patients with hyperglycemia showed a significant decrease in albumin level by 6.7% (total group, P<0.05), 4.5% (sixty years' group, P<0.05), 8.9% (seventy years' group, P<0.05) and 4.5% (eighty years' group, P<0.05), respectively. In conclusion, the high concentration of glucose in the senior patients with hyperglycemia may be a cause of severe liver function and lipid metabolism disorder.

• IEMEK Journal of Embedded Systems and Applications
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.79-85
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• 2013

This paper proposes a system that utilizes USN(Ubiquitous Sensor Network), Bluetooth and smart phone to improve the function of senior houses. In typical approach, a system in a senior house either directly accesses the status of elderly people by its sensor or is alerted by elderly people who trigger an emergency bell, derive a decision and take an appropriate action. In addition, it is possible for a designated social worker to check the status of senior patients through monitoring system connected by UTP(Unshielded Uwisted Pair) cables, but the responsible person has to be present to monitor patients' status. However, the new system, suggested in this paper, embed Bluetooth function in a blood pressure gauge, thus the smart phone receives patients' health information such as blood pressure through Bluebooth, if any abnormal event occurs. Consequently, the smart phone sends SMS(Short Message Service) to a responsible social worker or a designated hospital. When this program in the paper becomes a reality, an unmanned system that is able to determine suitable actions for certain events will be established, even if a social worker were absence.

• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
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• v.55 no.1
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• pp.18-25
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• 2014

Objective : This study explored the relationships among demographic (DVs) and clinical variables (CVs), neurocognitive (NOs) and functional outcome (FO) that could be used as prognostic factors for old aged patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI) undergoing or appointed disability evaluation (DE) after treatment. Methods : A total of 162 subjects with TBI above the age of 55 years undergoing DE or appointed to do so after treatments were selected. The patients were divided into two subgroups according to age : a junior elderly group 55 to 64 years old and a senior elderly group over the age of 65. NOs and FO were evaluated using the Seoul Neuropsychological Screening Battery and Clinical Dementia Rating scale. Results : Gender, age, and education level were shown to significantly impact the recovery of NOs after TBI. Other DVs and CVs such as area of residency, occupation, type of injury, or loss of consciousness were not found to significantly affect the recovery of NOs after TBI. Analysis of the relationships among DVs, CVs and NOs demonstrated that gender, age, and education level contributed to the variance of NOs. In FO, loss of consciousness (LOC) was included to prognostic factor. Conclusion : Gender, age and education level significantly influence the NOs of elderly patients with TBI. LOC may also serve as a meaningful prognostic factor in FO. Unlike younger adult patients with TBI, old aged patients with TBI did not show global faking-bad or malingering attitudes to DE for compensation, but assume that they could faking their performance in a test set available visual feedback.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.62-74
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• 2011

This study was designed to implement and evaluate a nutrition education program for hypertensive patients aged between 50 and over. Nutrition education consisted of four sessions and, 35 out of 51 patients completed all education sessions at the public health center. To assess program effectiveness (effectively), data about blood pressure, blood cholesterol, anthropometry, nutrition knowledge, eating behavior and dietary intake were collected before and after nutrition education. Data were analyzed using SAS package (ver. 9.2) and significant difference was evaluated by paired t-test, x2-test and Wilcoxon signed rank test. Blood cholesterol was significantly reduced from 200.7 mg/dL to 188.7 mg/dL after nutrition education, although there were not significant changes in blood pressure or blood triglyceride level. Weight (p < 0.05), % body fat (p < 0.001), BMI (p < 0.05) were significantly reduced, especially in women, after nutrition education. Nutrition knowledge was increased significantly (p < 0.05), and some eating behaviors such as 'having fruits & vegetables for snack' and 'having brown rice, barley rice than white rice' were improved after nutrition education (p < 0.05). Sodium intake was reduced from 3,888.9 mg/day to 3,157.4 mg/day after nutrition education (p < 0.05). Except protein and iron intakes, the nutrient intake of hypertensive patients was much below the recommended level for Koreans. Dietary intakes of most of nutrients were not significantly different between pre-test and post-test. It appeared that nutrition education for the aged hypertensive patients was effective in reducing the percentage of % body fat and BMI, increasing the nutrition knowledge and some dietary behaviors. This nutrition education can be implemented at public health centers or senior centers for hypertensive patients.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Costume
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• v.63 no.2
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• pp.68-81
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• 2013

The purpose of this study is the improvement of the senior patients' life quality by providing aesthetic and emotional stability by creating and providing a newly designed patient wear for them. Empirical research and analysis were done for the research. Survey from advanced research and clothing design for the senior citizens in Japan and German are analyzed. The result of this research extracted characteristics, which applied to the production of a severe senior patient wear. And the following characteristics emerged: affordability, comfort, aesthetics, and ease of putting on the clothes. To meet these conditions by the details of the clothing design, using fasteners like zippers and Velcro is useful. It is able to solve the problem of affordability making the vertically integrated overalls to be able being separated by zippers in order to reduce the volume of laundry. It was able to overcome the discomfort due to contamination of the feces through the use of the fasteners even though the importance of choosing the comfort material related closely to the comfort. Using material mixed with multiple colors, plaid or bright pink, instead of using neutral colors fulfilled the aesthetic requirement. In Particular, utilizing detachable function fasteners contributed great services.

• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
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• v.60 no.6
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• pp.654-660
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• 2017

Objective : Mechanical thrombectomy is increasingly being used for the treatment of acute ischemic stroke. The population over 80 years of age is growing, and many of these patients have acute infarction; however, these patients are often excluded from clinical trials, so the aim of this study was to compare the functional outcomes and complication rates in very elderly patients (age ${\geq}80$ years) and aged patients (60-79 years) treated with mechanical thrombectomy. Methods : Between January 2010 and June 2015, we retrospectively reviewed 113 senior patients (over 60 years old) treated at our institution for acute ischemic stroke with mechanical thrombectomy. They were divided into a very elderly (${\geq}80$ years) and aged (60-79 years) group, with comparisons in recanalization rates, complications, death and disability on discharge be reported. Results : The mean age was 70.3 years in the aged group and 83.4 years in the very elderly group. Elderly patients had higher rates of mechanical thrombectomy failure than the younger group (40% vs. 14%; odds ratio [OR] 4.1; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.4-11.9; p=0.012). Results from thrombolysis in cerebral ischemia and modified Rankin scale at discharge were worse in the older group (p=0.005 and 0.023 respectively). There were no differences in mortality rate or other complications, but infarction progression rates were significantly higher in the very elderly group. (15% vs. 2.2%; OR 8.0; 95% CI 1.2-51.7; p=0.038). The majority (92.3%) of the patients who failed in aged group were not successful after several trials. However, in half (4 of 8) of the very elderly group, the occlusion site could not be accessed. Conclusion : Patients older than 80 years of age undergoing mechanical thrombectomy for acute infarction were more difficult to recanalize due to inaccessible occlusion sites and had a higher rate of infarction progression, However, mortality and other complications were similar to those in younger patients.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.734-745
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• 2009

Diabetes mellitus is the prevalent disease among older adults. The purpose of this study was to implement and evaluate the nutrition education program for diabetes mellitus patients aged 60 and over. The one group pretest and posttest design was employed to evaluate the program effectiveness. Nutrition education program for diabetes mellitus patients was carried out at the public healthy center in Guri city. The 38 out of 63 patients completed education program. They received four sessions of group education during four weeks. Nutrition education materials (booklet, leaflet) for older adults were provided to participants. Data about blood glucose, blood pressure, nutrition and diabetes mellitus knowledge, dietary behavior, dietary intake by 24-hour recalls were collected before and after nutrition education to evaluate the program effectiveness. All data were statistically analyzed using SAS package (ver.8.2) and significant difference was evaluated by $X^2$-test, paired t-test and Wilcoxon signed rank test. Study results showed that blood pressure and blood glucose were slightly decreased after nutrition education but they did not reach statistical significance. There were positive changes in nutrition knowledge and dietary behavior. The total score of nutrition and diabetes knowledge increased significantly (p < 0.001), and the total score of dietary behavior was improved (p < 0.05) after nutrition education. Dietary intakes of most of nutrients examined were not significantly different between pre- and post-test. Based on study results, it appears that nutrition education program for the aged diabetes mellitus patients might effectively increase nutrition knowledge, dietary behavior and diet quality. This nutrition education program can be used at the public health centers or senior centers for the management of diabetes mellitus for older adults.