• Journal of Korean Public Health Nursing
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.171-181
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• 2007

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore the living experiences of low-income elderly living alone. Method: The data were collected through more than ten times of in-depth interview with 7 participants. The research question was "what is it like to experience your daily living?" The data were analyzed by Colaizzi's phenomenological analytic method. Results: Four main meaningful themes were identified: 1) The participants blamed themselves for their past lives, 2) They also felt sorry for being a burden on other's lives, 3) They considered diseases to be a natural part of life, 4) They felt worried and hopeless about the rest of their lives. Conclusion: This study revealed the living experiences of low-income elderly living alone. Further studies are needed to determine appropriate care and treatment. The authentic caring approaches are required with caring community people. Finally, this study may provide data for better recognizing the low-income elderly's experiences of caring in the community.

• Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.809-817
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• 2020

Objectives: This study aimed to analyze the relationship between socioeconomic factors and the unmet dental care needs of the living alone and living with family elderly groups to confirm the differences in their influence. Methods: Data from the Korea Health Panel Study of 2016 were used to analyze a total of 4,987 individuals: 4,008 in living with family group and 979 in living alone group. Chi-square test and multiple logistic regression analyses were performed using SPSS Version 22 (p<0.05). Results: We observed that 16.5% and 28.3% of the participants from the living with family and living alone groups had unmet dental care needs, respectively, indicating that the living alone group had more unmet dental care needs. Income level, residential area, and healthcare security were significant factors related to the living with family group. In contrast, medical aid for healthcare security was a significant factor related to the living alone group (p<0.05). Conclusions: The results confirmed that socioeconomic factors that affect unmet dental care vary according to the living situation. Therefore, the government should identify the number of elderly individuals living alone, which is increasing annually. These individuals are vulnerable in almost all aspects, and the government should establish and implement appropriate oral healthcare policies to support them.

• Journal of Digital Contents Society
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• v.18 no.8
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• pp.1661-1669
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• 2017

In 2017, Korea has reached 1.3 million elderly people living alone. The government is promoting the basic care service for the elderly by using care workers to check the security of the elderly living alone. However, due to lack of service personnel and service usage rate of elderly care workers, it is difficult to manage. To improve these environmental constraints, this study attempted to construct a monitoring system for elderly people living alone by using sensors such as temperature, humidity, motion detection, and gas leak detection. The sensor periodically collects the current status data of the elderly and sends them to the server, creates a real time graph based on the data, and monitors it through the web. In the monitoring process, when the sensor is out of the range of the specified value, it sends a warning text message to the guardian to inform the current situation, and is designed and implemented so as to support the safety life of the elderly living alone.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.257-266
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• 2018

Purpose: The study has been conducted to identify factors affecting the participation in leisure activities by elderly women living alone. Methods: Data were collected through a questionnaire survey among 150 elderly women in Seoul and Gyeong-gi Province. The measurement tools that were used include participation in leisure activities, perceived health status, Geriatric Depression Scale Short Form-Korea (GDSS-K), psychological well-being scale, and loneliness scale. The data were analyzed by using the Pearson correlation coefficients, t-test, analysis of variance ANOVA, and stepwise multiple regression with the SPSS/windows version 21.0 program. Results: The analysis shows that the affection for participation in leisure activities of the elderly women living alone who participated in the questionnaire survey is significant (F=14.6, p<.001). The value of the adjusted $R^2$ is 0.55, which accounts for the explanatory power of 55.4%. The predictor that has been found to have the greatest influence on the participation in leisure activities by the elderly women living alone include perceived health status, followed by monthly allowance (10,000 won), psychological well-being, economic status, religion, depression, family structure, and loneliness. Conclusion: The results suggest that in developing nursing interventions and practice for the participation in leisure activities by elderly women living alone, perceived health status, psychological well-being, depression, and loneliness should be considered.

• Journal of Korean Public Health Nursing
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.130-140
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• 2006

Purpose: This study aimed to analyze the conditions of the leisure type, health status, self-esteem, and social support of the elderly living alone. Method: The subjects were 189 elderly. The instrument was a structured questionnaire. The data were analyzed by descriptive statistics, ANOVA, and Pearson correlation coefficient. Results: The frequency of the leisure types of the elderly living alone was in the order of culture, rest, social activity and sports. The following factors showed a statistically significant relation: gender, education, religion and marital status with leisure type; age, economic status, job and leisure type with perceived health status; education, economic status and religion with self-esteem; and economic status, marital status and religion with social support. There was a negative correlation between ADL and both perceived health status, and self-esteem, but positive correlations between self-esteem and perceived health status, and between social support and both perceived health status and self-esteem. Conclusion: To maintain the quality of life of the elderly living alone, this study suggests that providing various leisure activities could raise self-esteem, and thereby complement for any deficiencies in family and social support.

• Journal of Korean Public Health Nursing
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.258-269
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• 2019

Purpose: This study examined the effects of an integrated activity program on the self-efficacy and depression of underprivileged elderly women living alone. Methods: The participants recruited were fifty underprivileged elderly women living alone in D city. Data were collected from September 1 to October 1, 2015. To test the effects of the integrated activity program, the participants were divided into two matched groups, an experimental group (N=25) and control group (N=25). The data were analyzed with a ${\chi}^2-test$, Fisher's exact probability test, and t-test using the SPSS/WIN 12.0 program. Results: After attending the integrated activity program, significant differences between the experimental group and control group were found for self-efficacy (t=9.19, p<.001) and depression (t=-18.31, p<.001). Conclusion: The results indicate that the integrated activity program enhances self-efficacy and reduces depression in underprivileged elderly women living alone. Therefore, this program is a good strategy that community mental health nurses can use to improve the mental health of underprivileged elderly women living alone.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.1-16
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• 2017

Using data from the 2015 Korea Welfare Panel Study, we examined the predictors of psychological well-being (life satisfaction and depression) of single elderly people living alone across development stages (young-old, mid-old, and old-old) and suggested implications for elderly policy. For this purpose, we selected 1,364 elderly people who lived alone but preserved their family relationships, and were 65 years of age or older. Separate analyses were conducted for the three groups of single elderly people living alone. Overall, the psychological well-being of single elderly people living alone was higher than moderate level, and they were generally satisfied with their everyday lives and less depressed. However, there were group differences: the young-old group was more satisfied than the old-old group with in their everyday lives and less depressed than the mid-old and old-old groups. In the young-old group, life satisfaction was significantly associated with subjective health, non-physical conflict with family, disposal income, house ownership, dietary deficiency, cost of living, and public pension. In addition, depression was significantly associated with subjective health, non-physical conflict with family, dietary deficiency, and physical conflict with family. In the mid-old group, life satisfaction was significantly associated with subjective health, housing non-physical conflict with family, disposal income, and dietary deficiency. Depression was significantly associated with subjective health, housing deficiency. In the old-old group, life satisfaction was significantly associated with subjective health and non-physical conflict with family. Depression was significantly associated with subjective health. Therefore, 'health'and 'family'are important key concepts to consider when making elderly policy.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.157-166
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• 2005

Purpose: This study was to explore health experiences of the low-income elderly living alone reflected in Newman's Health as expanding consciousness theory. Method: The researcher used Newman's praxis methodology because it is good for showing the process of interaction between the researcher and the low-income elderly living alone. Results: The significant characteristics of early health experience during a participant's lifetime were demonstrated that blamed themselves, being burden of themselves hopeless of their lives. However, after a turning point in health experience. The health experience of most of the participants evolved as expanding consciousness. Conclusion: This study has provided support for Newman's theory of health. Most of the participants recognized meanings in their patterns and authentic caring relationships with the nurse as researcher, pattern recognition as a nursing practice was a meaningful transforming process in the participant-nurse partnership. This participatory approach expands the scope of sharing health experience with the elderly living alone and with caring community people.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.310-321
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• 2018

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to identify the effects of the elderly's health statuses, health behavior, and social relations on their health-related quality of life (HRQoL) according to their family types. Methods: The subjects of this study were 1000 elderly persons (298 living alone, 420 living with their spouses, and 282 living with their family)living in C city in Gangwon Province. Data were collected through structured questionnaires from July 20 to September 30, 2015. The SPSS/WIN program was used for data analysis. Results: The HRQoL of the elderly living alone was much lower than the other groups. The most influential factors on the HRQoL include self-rated health and depressive symptoms in all three groups. Social activities and skipping meals were associated with the HRQoL of the elderly living alone and living with their spouses, while marital status, number of chronic disease, and instrumental activities of daily living were associated with the HRQoL of the elderly living with their family. Conclusion: Nurses should take into account family types when designing interventions for improving the HRQoL of the elderly.

• Journal of the Korea Society of Computer and Information
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.39-46
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• 2024

In this paper, we propose a low-cost wearable device that can monitor the health status of the elderly living alone in real-time. As aging is accelerating, the elderly population is rapidly increasing, and the social isolation of the elderly living alone is causing physical and mental difficulties and the number of elderly people dying alone is increasing, becoming a social problem. In this study, we propose a belly band-type wearable device that can monitor the biometric information of elderly living alone. The proposed device transmits electromyogram, electrocardiogram, and body temperature information to a remote server through an Arduino-based sensor built into the abdominal band. Transmitted information can be monitored in a web environment in real-time, and it has the feature of enabling remote monitoring of a large number of subjects with a small amount of management manpower. The research results will contribute to improving the safety and welfare of seniors living alone by not only detecting lonely deaths in advance but also responding immediately to dangerous situations that may occur in daily life.