• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.241-249
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• 2014

The aim of this paper is to examine the buffering effect of family cohesion in the relationship between depression and suicidal risk among adolescents, adults, and the elderly. To achieve the research aim, surveys were conducted in 10 cities across the country for 399 adolescents, 473 adults, and 370 elderly from May to August 2010. Major findings of the data analysis are as follows. First, while, in the relationship between depression and suicidal risk, the elderly were the highest, followed by adolescents and adults in descending order, in family cohesion, adults were the highest, followed by the elderly and adolescents. Second, the analysis of the buffering effect of family cohesion in the relationship between depression and suicidal risk showed that it was significant only for adolescents and adults, which means that for those two groups family cohesion alleviates the effects of depression on suicidal risk, demonstrating the necessity of strengthening family cohesion to reduce suicides among the two groups of people. But, for the elderly for whom family relationship is more important than any other age group, the buffering effect of family cohesion in the relationship between depression and suicidal risk was not proved. The interpretation of this phenomenon is given in the part of the paper where the characteristics of the suicide of the old age group is discussed.

• Korean Journal of Applied Biomechanics
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.259-269
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• 2021

Objective: The purpose of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to investigate age-related bimanual coordination functions in older adults. Method: Thirteen studies that compared bimanual coordination functions in older adults with those in healthy young adults qualified for this meta-analysis. We additionally categorized 21 total comparisons from the 13 qualified studies into two types of task-related moderator variables: (1) kinematic versus kinetic movements and (2) symmetry versus asymmetry movements. Results: Random effects model meta-analysis found that older adults revealed significant bimanual coordination impairments as compared with young adults (Hedges's g = -0.771; p < .0001; I² = 74.437%). We additionally confirmed specific bimanual coordination deficits using two moderator variables: 1) kinematic (Hedges's g = -0.884; p < .0001; I² = 0.000%) and kinetic (Hedges's g = -0.666; p = .023; I² = 86.170%). 2) symmetry (Hedges's g = -0.712; p = .001; I² = 74.291%) and asymmetry (Hedges's g = -0.817; p < .0001; I² = 76.322%). The moderator variable analysis indicated older adults indicated bimanual coordination deficits in the upper extremities than healthy young adults while performing kinematic bimanual coordination tasks and asymmetry coordination tasks. Conclusion: These findings suggest that developing motor rehabilitation programs based on asymmetric bimanual movement task for enhancing interlimb coordination functions of older adults may be crucial for increasing their independence in everyday activities. Given that elderly revealed the deficits in lower extremities coordination when older adults perform gait, posture, and balance, future studies should estimate lower limb coordination functions in elderly people.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.64 no.1
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• pp.101-124
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• 2012

This study examined the longitudinal changes of self-perceptions of own aging among middle-aged and elderly adults, using the latent growth modeling with the three waves of the "Aging and the Quality of Life of the Elderly in Korea", which sampled adults aged over 45 living in Seoul and Chuncheon. The dependent variable is attitudes toward own aging, the sub-scale of the Philadelphia Geriatric Center Morale Scale developed by Lawton (1975). The results showed that the research participants' attitudes of their own aging deteriorated over time. In addition, the lower initial status of the research participants' attitudes of their own aging was associated with being older, being non-married, living in rural areas, attaining the lower level of education, having the fewer social activities, reporting the worse subjective economic status, and reporting the worse subjective health status. The slope of the research participants' attitudes of their own aging differed by the residence areas, educational attainments, subjective economic status and subjective health status. In particular, the difference of the initial status by educational attainments grew over time. Social welfare policy and practice implications are discussed for middle-aged and elderly adults to improve attitudes toward their own aging.

• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.95-113
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• 1986

The purpose of this study was to estimate the future demands of elderly housing and to give the basic data for elderly housing. The specific objectives were: 1) to investigate the conciousness of living arragement for elderly; 2) to dientify the needs towards private and group space, entertainment facilities, support facilities, and management methodes. For the objective 1, questionnaires were administered to322 male adults selected from relatively high econoic level in Seoul. For the objective 2, questionnares were interviewed to 30 male adults who lived with their spouses only, selected from 322 respondents. Data from respondents were analyzed by frequency, percentage, mean, and $X^{2}$-test.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.162-175
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• 2013

Background: The purpose of this study was to analyze the association between social support, psychosocial factors, and health behaviors of old adults in korean society. Methods: The data which was used in this study was extracted from the second wave of the Korean longitudinal study of aging in 2008. A total of 3,978 elderly aged 65 years or older were included in this study. We conducted $X^2$-test, t-test for the elderly health behavior in accordance with their social support and psychosocial factors. Also, multivariate logistic regressive analysis was performed in order to find how degree social support and psychosocial factors are associated with health behavior after adjusting sex, age, smoking (alcohol drinking), and other significant variables. The data was processed by SAS ver. 9.1 and Stata SE ver. 11. Results: Social support in older adults was significantly associated with lower smoking, alcohol drinking, exercise, and eating habit. Also, psychosocial factors were positively associated with smoking, alcohol drinking, regular exercise, and eating habit. Conclusion: health behaviors of old adults are likely to be vulnerable to social support and psychosocial factors. To increase effectiveness of the health policy for the elderly in Korea, it is important to adapt new strategy to include the empowerment of elderly's social networks, policy support to enhance subjective expectation, and life satisfaction.

• Journal of Korean Public Health Nursing
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.214-227
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• 2019

Purpose: This study examined the socio-demographic factors, the disaster related factors, the physical health related factors and the psychological factors of older adults exposed to natural disaster and these factors may possibly cause the occurrence of PTSD. Methods: A cross-sectional study was designed using the secondary data from the 3rd Disaster Victims Panel Survey (2012-2017). The data from 1,397 disaster victims were analyzed using descriptive statistics and logistic regression analysis. Results: Compared with the younger adult disaster victims, the elderly were more likely to have symptoms of PTSD (15.0% vs. 12.1%). Factors such as the number of years since being exposed to the disaster, anxiety, depression and social adjustment were significantly associated with occurrence of PTSD for both older and younger adults. Female gender was the additional risk factors for the older adults, while marital status, income, having witnessed another person's injury or death, and having lost a home were associated with the occurrence of PTSD. Conclusion: The elderly were more likely to develop PTSD as compared with younger adults. More targeted post-disaster mental health services to the elderly with the symptoms of depressive, anxiety and impaired social adjustments, should be provided to improve their mental health.

• International Journal of Contents
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.57-64
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• 2020

We sought to compare upper extremity muscle activity between handwriting on paper and touchscreen with dominant and non-dominant hands in younger adults (age 23.90±1.12) and the elderly (age 75.55±5.76). Muscle activity (percent of maximum voluntary contraction) in the biceps brachii muscle, triceps brachii muscle, flexor carpi ulnaris muscle, and extensor carpi ulnaris muscle was measured using an electromyography device. As a result, our data indicate that muscle activity is lower in younger adults than the elderly. Besides, muscle activity is lower in the dominant versus non-dominant hand, and lower when writing using a touchscreen than on paper. These results can be used to support recommending touchscreens in the elderly. Also, they can be used as baseline data for comparing the performance of non-paretic side and paretic side in patients relative to the central nervous system.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.695-704
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• 2012

Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate major factors influencing adoption of smartphone to promote its use by older adults. Background: Despite increasing proportion of elderly people and elderly market, the proportion of elderly smartphone user is still relatively small compared to whole smartphone users. Thus, we need to find out major factors influencing adoption of smartphone to increase proportion of elderly smartphone users. Method: Seven major factors were extracted from 36 survey questions using factor analysis. Regression analysis was also applied to determine specific factors affecting intention of use based on user versus non-user of smartphone, age, gender, and educational background. Results: As results of factor analysis and regression analysis, major factors influencing adoption of smartphone for elderly users were significantly different according to gender, age, educational background based on smartphone users or non-users. Conclusion: The result of this study identified major factors influencing adoption of smartphone for the elderly and provided basic information related to adoption of smartphone according to elderly people's characteristics. Consequently, we can expect to reduce the information gap and to improve quality of life for the elderly. Application: The development and marketing strategy could be applied differently based on the factors influencing adoption of smartphone. It is also possible to develop a prediction model for smartphone adoption according to elderly users' characteristics.

• Korean Journal of Applied Biomechanics
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.145-155
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• 2019

Objective: The purpose of this study was to compare the physical characteristics (bone mineral density, joint muscle strength) and running biomechanics between older adults and young adult runners to understand the changes of running strategy by aging. Method: Bone mineral density (Dual Energy X-ray Absorptiometry, USA) of lower lower extremity and muscle strength (Cybex Humac Norm [DEXA], CSMI, USA) were measured to identify the physical characteristics of 10 elderly (age: $67.70{\pm}3.30yrs$, height: $1.68{\pm}0.04m$, mass: $67.70{\pm}3.80kg$) and 10 young adults (age: $21.20{\pm}0.42yrs$, height: $1.73{\pm}0.06m$, mass: $72.11{\pm}4.15kg$). Running data was collected by using an instrumented treadmill (Bertec, USA) and 7 infrared cameras (Oqus 300, Qualisys, Sweden). Two-way repeated ANOVA analysis was used to analyze results at a significant level of .05 with Bonferroni post hoc analysis. Results: Compared to the young adult group, the elderly group showed statistically significant difference in physical characteristics and in running characteristics. Elderly runners showed lower BMD and muscle strength compared with young runners (p<.05). In the running parameters, elderly runners tend to show shorter contact time and stride length compared with young runners (p<.05). In the joint angles, elderly runners showed smaller range of ankle motion compared with young runners (p<.05). Finally, elderly runners showed lower level of joint moment, joint power, and GRF compared with young runners in each running speed (p<.05). Conclusion: The running behavior of the elderly performed periodic running was similar to many variables of young adults. However, there were noticeable differences found in the ankle joints and most kinetic variables compared with young adult runners. This discrepancy may propose that elderly runners should consider appropriate running distance and intensity in the program.

• Perspectives in Nursing Science
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.139-147
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• 2011

Purpose: An integrative literature review was done to identify the best interventions for older adults with dyslipidemia in an effort to promote nursing involvement in the prevention of statin-induced symptoms (SIS). Such awareness could increase the capacity of interventions by geriatric nurses using evidence-based practices in the reassessment of statin therapy. Methods: CINAHL, Pubmed, and ProQuest were searched using these terms: dyslipidemia in, elderly, statins, adverse effects, and quality of life. Eleven articles fitting the inclusion criteria were identified and analyzed. Results: The findings indicate no evidence for the benefit of statin therapy for morbidity/mortality in a high-risk primary prevention set-up, specifically in the elderly population. Although SIS prevails among older adults, there are limited data that confidently support this observation along with nursing interventions specifically for the geriatric nursing community. Conclusion: Future research is necessary to shift nursing intervention with statin users (specifically in older adults) from an illness-based intervention to a preventive care plan to provide optimal care based on evidence. It is essential to involve self-reporting, cooperation, and communication with health care professionals, specifically with geriatric nurses. Additional studies are needed to further direct practice interventions in elderly statin users.