• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
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• v.47 no.5
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• pp.59-66
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• 2009

The present study identified the patterns of support exchange between the elderly living alone and their children in a metropolitan city in Japan and examined the relationships between the patterns of support exchange and their life satisfaction. The sample was collected from 1,020 the elderly living alone in Osaka city selected with random sampling method. The questionnaires were mailed to the respondents, who were asked to send them back. The response rate was 51.7%(n = 526). We used 371 sample of respondents who have children. The results indicated that:(1)the patterns of support exchange were different by the types of social support, (2)the life satisfaction of the elderly who had an appropriate balance of a support exchange pattern was significantly higher than the life satisfaction of those who had low support exchange or only provided supports to their children. The findings imply that an appropriate balance of support exchange between the elderly living alone and their children was crucial in improving life satisfaction of the elderly living alone.

• Korean Journal of Artificial Intelligence
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.15-21
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• 2021

This paper conducted a feasibility study by applying an Internet of Things and Artificial intelligence-based management system for the elderly living alone in an aging society. The number of single-person families over the age of 50 is expected to increase, and problems such as health, safety, and loneliness may occur due to aging. Therefore, by establishing an IoT-based care system for the elderly living alone, a stable service was developed through securing a rapid response system for the elderly living alone and automatically reporting 119. The participants of the demonstration test were subjects under the jurisdiction of the "Seongnam Senior Complex," and the data collection rate between the IoT sensor and the emergency safety gateway was high. During the demonstration period, as a result of evaluating the satisfaction of the IoT-based care system for the elderly living alone, 90 points were achieved. We are currently in the COVID-19 situation. Therefore, the number of elderly living alone is continuously increasing, and the number of people who cannot benefit from care services will continue to occur. Also, even if the COVID-19 situation is over, the epidemic will happen again. So the care system is essential. The elderly care system developed in this way will provide safety management services based on artificial intelligence-based activity pattern analysis, improving the quality of in-house safety services.

• Korean Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.53-60
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• 1998

The purposes of this study are to investigate the leisure life, focused on the leisure participation of the elderly living alone or living with their spouse in Chungbuk, and to provide some suggestions from the perspective of the well-being of the elderly. Two hundred fourty four elderly persons were selected, and questionnaire was utilized for collecting data. The results are as follows: The elderly who were living alone or living with their spouse frequently participated in time spending activities and family oriented activities. The structure of leisure participation differed significantly according to the respondent's age, educational level, health status, and monthly average income. The significant independent variables influencing the leisure participation of the elderly were educational level and monthly average income, and further, the most important variable in influencing the elderly leisure participation was the educational level.

• The Korean Journal of Health Service Management
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.29-38
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• 2012

The aim of this study was to examine the spouse effects on depressive symptom and suicidal thinking among the elderly aged 65 and over in Korea. The subjects selected from the database of the Fourth Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey(KNHANES IV) conducted by Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from 2007 to 2009. Those who were female, older, lower educated, or poorer were more likely to live alone than their counterparts respectively. The elderly living alone experienced depressive symptom as 2.0 times(OR=2.004, 95% CI=1.433, 2.803) as, and suicidal thinking as 1.6 times(OR=1.567, 95% CI=1.111, 2.211) as the elderly couples did, adjusting for socio-economic factor, health status factors, and health behaviors factors. As for the male subgroup, the elderly living alone experienced depressive symptom as 4.0 times(OR=3.997, 95% CI=2.066, 7.732) as, and suicidal thinking as 3.2 times(OR=3.181, 95% CI=1.535, 6.592) as the elderly couples did. On the other hands, there was no significant difference in depressive symptoms and suicidal thinking between the female elderly living alone and couples. The authors suggested policy interventions to promote the mental health of the male elderly living alone.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.18 no.12
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• pp.443-451
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• 2017

The purpose of this research is to examine ways to improve the quality of life of elderly people living alone in urban areas by identifying their stress, social support, and quality of life as well as analyzing the relationships between these factors. In this research, a questionnaire survey was conducted for approximately two weeks including 232 elderly people aged 65 years and above who were using 10 senior welfare centers in the Seoul and Gyeonggi regions. The results of the analysis based on the collected data showed that of the stresses experienced by elderly people living alone in urban areas, the stresses of health, family, and psychological and social stresses had negative effects on social support and quality of life. Also, it was found that the social support of elderly people living alone had positive effects on the quality of life. Additionally, it was found that social support had a mediating effect in the relationship between stress and quality of life of elderly people living alone in urban areas. In other words, social support plays a buffer role in enhancing the quality of life regarding health, family, economy, and psychological and social stresses. This research has significant implications in that it was conducted on elderly people living alone, since elderly people living alone are not only under more stressful circumstances in a vulnerable environment than other seniors but also their quality of life is much lower. The implications of this research are that, from a social point of view, these elderly people living alone should no longer be neglected and that differentiated policy interventions for elderly people living alone is required.

• The Korean Journal of Community Living Science
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• v.27 no.spc
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• pp.625-634
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• 2016

This study aims to verify the effect of the rural community living home use through an analysis of depression among the elderly women who live alone in the rural community living home. A survey was conducted from July to September 2015 through direct interviews with 236 elderly people who live alone in community living homes at 52 locations across the country. The main results of this study are as follows. First, social support from family/relatives and neighbors/friends was found not to affect depression in the elderly living in community living homes. Second, satisfaction with health status, economic status and life appeared to affect their depression. This indicates the need for various measures to increase the subjective satisfaction of health. Third, when the demographic characteristics, social support and personal satisfaction were controlled, the period of use, satisfaction with use and operational service/no service were proven to have an impact on depression in the elderly living alone in community living homes. In other words, since the level of satisfaction with community living homes is very high and this has a positive impact on the elderly living in community living homes, it is desirable to have an ongoing policy for the homes to be utilized as important welfare resources. Based on these findings, this study proposes improvements in the user experience and programs and services offered for rural community living home business programs.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Rural Architecture
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.59-66
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• 2012

The rate of the rural population over the age of 65 was increased from 14.7% in 2000 to 20.6% in 2010. The rate of elderly living alone in rural areas was increased from 9.2% to 13.3% for 10 years. Two million households over 40% of the elderly living alone nationwide are concentrated in rural areas. This paper investigates cases used as living space by interview and remodeling senior centers (village community center) for the elders living alone in rural areas. In Gimje two the nation's first senior centers were remodeled in 2006 (for both the village community center) and were begun to use these as group homes. Evaluation was a success. Since then, these were increased by approximately 20 centers per year by year and are currently 108 centers at the end of 2011. In Chungcheongnam-do, a pilot project has been begun for communal living by remodeling the senior center (for both the village community center) and elderly housing. Municipalities are similar in their business (is mostly). However, the interview results for each municipality are different. The success of the project depends on rules proposed by local governments and the development of programs with users to continuous financially support.

• Korean Journal of Culture and Social Issue
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.595-615
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• 2015

This study aims to develop well-being enhancement program for the female elderly living alone, and examine its effects. The program was structured by exploring the meaning of life and happiness with focused on self-disclosure, dealing with regret and resentment, forgiveness, gratitude, and resilience. At first, pilot program was applied to 6 female elderly living alone for predicting the effects and modified the program. For verification of the program effect, 11 female elderly living alone were assigned to developed well-being enhancement program, also 11 female elderly living alone were assigned to comparison group who participate in activity-focused program, and 12 female elderly living alone were assigned to control group. Results indicated that regret for interpersonal relations and resentment of the female elderly living alone who participate in well-being enhancement program were reduced after participating the program, while their self-disclosure increased. The female elderly living alone who participate in well-being enhancement program showed lowered level of anxiety, loneliness, and awareness of aging, which were factors of well-bing in senescence. Moreover, their level of negative emotion was decreased, and life satisfaction, positive emotion, and happiness were increased after participating the program. But, all of those enhancement were not found in control group as well as comparison group. These results suggest that well-being enhancement program for the female elderly living alone developed in this study could be utilized in various settings.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.78-87
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• 2017

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to identify factors influencing the quality of life of the elderly living alone and living with their families with regard to their health statuses and health behavior experiences. Methods: We used source data from the 2014 Community Health Survey. The subjects of this study included some elderly people aged 65 and over, and analyzed the data of 13,373 elders living alone and 13,322 elders living with family. Results: Factors influencing the quality of life of the elderly living alone and living with their families include gender, age, education, household income, current occupation, subjective stress level, depression, number of diagnosed diseases, walking exercise, the experience of health screening, and the experience of not having necessary medical services (p<.001). Region was a significant variable influencing the quality of life of the elderly living with their families (p<.001). Conclusion: In order to improve the quality of life of the elderly, it is necessary to provide sound conditions for working, emotional support, walking exercise and promotion of health screening, and to supplement the environment and institution for them to receive necessary medical services.

• 한국노년학
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.93-108
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• 2019

The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of absolute / relative poverty on the life satisfaction focusing on mediation effect of subjective social status by type of elderly residents. In order to analyze the distinct characteristics of the elderly, analysis was conducted with 3,327 the elderly living together and 668 the elderly living alone using 'Korean Longitudinal Study of Ageing(KLoSA)' from 3rd to 5th wave data provided by the Korea Employment Information Service. The main analysis results are as follows. First, each poverty rate for the elderly living together accounted for 43.5 percent and 51.4 percent, while 63.8 percent and 77.2 percent for the elderly living alone respectively. Second, life satisfaction was higher among the elderly living together than living alone, However, life satisfaction was not related to condition of poverty among the elderly living alone. Third, absolute / relative poverty were associated with life satisfaction of the elderly living together, and subjective social status had a mediating effect. However, relative poverty was not related to life satisfaction among the elderly living alone, which indicated that it needs to support not only the financial approach to overcome absolute poverty but also the multi-dimensional poverty perspective in the intervention of the elderly living alone Based on the results, the study suggested to make a tool to measure of poverty using multi-dimensional poverty indicators.