• Asian Journal for Public Opinion Research
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.228-249
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• 2018

In 2015, the population of elderly people in Thailand was 16% of the total population and is predicted to be over 20% by 2021 and nearly 28% by 2031. The increase of the elderly population in Thailand has also increased the proportion of dependent elderly people, and caring for them poses many challenges for both families and the government. This descriptive method research aimed to survey the health status of dependent older people in the rural community of Lampang province in northern Thailand. The participants consisted of 62 older people and 62 primary family caregivers from Hong Ha Health Promoting Hospital, Lampang, Thailand (totaling 124 people). The researchers assessed the health status of older people and their activities of daily living (ADL). In addition, researchers assessed the health status and stress of caregivers. All the participants were interviewed about their experiences with caregiving. The results showed that most of the older respondents were female with an average age of 78.15 years. Based on the ADL assessment, 50 of the 62 older persons were homebound while the rest were bedridden. The majority of older people had chronic or long-term conditions that required hospitalization from time to time. Their frequent health problems included oral disorders such as tooth decay or caries/gum disease/no teeth, reduced sight, psychological disorders, knee pain and risk of falling, low BMI, risk of malnutrition, and urinary leakage and incontinence (58.06%, 66.13%, 62.90%, 70.97%, 38.71%, 66.13%, and 37.10%, respectively). Usual care provided by the family members included personal hygiene care, food preparation and feeding, medication management, housekeeping and organizing necessary equipment, supply of needed equipment, prevention of falls, helping with travel for medical checkups and treatment, and providing companionship. Families experienced shortages of medical supplies, daily use equipment, lack of employment, inadequate income, and difficulty accessing health care services due to lack of transportation. Some caregivers experienced caregiving stress related to a lack of social interactions as well as routine caregiving activities. Families need different types of support in order to promote the well-being of older people and caregivers. This highlights the need for a community participation model for the care of older people in order to reflect sustainable long-term outcomes.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.389-399
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• 2023

Background: The purpose of this study is to analyze the factors affecting the unmet healthcare needs of older people with chronic diseases in Korea and provide a basic research report to strengthen their access to medical care. Methods: In the 2020 older people survey data, 8,182 older people aged 65 or older who were diagnosed with one or more chronic diseases were the final subjects of the study. According to Andersen's behavioral model used in unmet healthcare needs, independent variables were composed of predisposing factors, possible factors, and necessary factors, and whether or not unmet healthcare needs was set as dependent variable. Results: Of the older people with chronic diseases, 1.6% experienced unmet healthcare needs, of which 55.9% experienced unmet healthcare needs for reasons related to economic burden, 31.6% physical constraints, and 12.5% time constraints. As a result of the analysis, older people with chronic diseases were more likely to experience unmet healthcare needs if they were relatively low in age, low in education level, no spouse, low in household income, poor subjective health, complex chronic diseases, and functional restrictions. However, by major reasons for experiencing unmet healthcare needs, living in rural areas were more likely to experience unmet healthcare needs due to physical constraints, and those who participated in economic activities and who had were more likely to experience unmet healthcare needs due to time burden. These results were not derived when only unmet healthcare needs was set as the dependent variable. Conclusion: This study emphasizes the need for an approach by cause of unmet medical occurrence by suggesting that there are differences in influencing factors by reason for experiencing unmet healthcare needs.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.23 no.3 s.75
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• pp.53-62
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• 2005

In this study, we challenge recent apocalyptic rhetoric about idle, burdensome, and dependent older people. Our primary objective is to examine and compare the productive activities of older adults in both Korea and Canada using a broader definition of productivity that included household work. Another objective is to identify and compare the factors related to the participation of household work of older adults in both countries. In order to conduct a comparative culture study two data sets were used; one was the 1999 Survey of Time Use collected by Korean Statistics Office and the other was 1998 Survey of Time Use collected by Canadian Statistics Office. Many countries have been collected a time use survey and used to study labor, welfare, and culture. Total number of 17,730 Korean and 2,729 Canadian between when and 84 were included to analyze the data. It is clear from the results that older people engage in productive behaviors, particularly when the definition of activities is broadened to include unpaid work. However, it is also clear the productive contributions in terms of household work ale lower among older Koreans than among older Canadians.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.417-427
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• 2001

Purpose: The aim of this study is to identify the influence of visual and hearing impairment on the activities of daily living of community dwelling elderly. Methods: Data were collected by home visiting interviewers from 452 older people aged 65 years or older living in community. Resident Assessment Instrument MDS-HC(2.0version) was used for data collection. Data analysis for descriptive statistics, Chi-square test and multiple regression was made by SAS 6.2 Results: 34.7% of the subject had hearing impairment and 64.3% had visual impairment Among IADL. one half of them were dependent in ordinary house work and meal preparation. In the case of ADL. 13.9% of subjects were dependent in bathing and 8.9% in personal hygiene. There was significant difference in IADL performance by visual and hearing impairment On the other hand, ADL performance showed the significant difference. only in the case of hearing impairment. As the result of input of visual and hearing impairment in the process of regression. variances were increased from 3% to 11%. Conclusions: Large proportions of older people living in the community have visual and hearing impairment. It could be confirmed that hearing and vision were significant factors influencing on IADL performance of older people. Intervention and support policy for elderly needs to focus on improvement of visual and hearing impairment.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.453-464
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• 2019

Objectives: The objective of this study was to examine whether dietary quality varies among different age groups and geographic areas, and whether the difference between geographic areas varies across several age groups in Korea. Methods: The subjects were 14,170 subjects who participated in the 2013-2015 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. The dietary quality was assessed using the Korean Health Eating Index (KHEI). Age groups were categorized into six groupings, and areas were categorized into urban and rural according to their administrative districts. The effect of area on the KHEI score was analyzed by multiple linear regression analysis. Results: The KHEI was the lowest in the 20-30s group (57.7 ± 0.4 score for 20s and 61.2 ± 0.3 score for 30s) and increased with age (p<0.001), showing the highest score in the 60s (67.9 ± 0.3 score), and then decreased again in the 70s and older (64.6 ± 0.3 score). As a result of comparing the KHEI score by area, the urban areas had higher KHEI scores than did the rural areas (63.5 ± 0.2 score for urban area and 62.2 ± 0.4 score for rural area, p=0.002). The difference between areas was dependent on the age group, showing a significant difference for subjects who were aged from 50s and older (p=0.002 for 50s, p<0.001 for 60s and p<0.001 for 70s and older). After adjusting for confounding factors, the effect of area on the KHEI score was only shown for those subjects in the over 60 years old group (p=0.035 for 60s and p<0.001 for 70s and older). Conclusions: The dietary quality differed according to the age group and geographic area. The dietary quality was lower for younger people than that for older people, and in rural areas compared to that in urban areas, and especially for older adults. The area factor was a very important factor for the dietary quality.

• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.97-114
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• 1996

Recently, attention for health promotion is rising. Alcohol is widely consumed among adults. About 1/3 of people 15 years of older enjoy drinking alcohol. Some 80% of them drink a half or more bottle of soju each time. Regular excessive drinking of alcohol may cause various problems. WHO(1990) reported that social problems such as divorce, unemployment, and financial difficulties ; psychological problems such as melancholy, suicide, and drug abuse ; physical problems such as cirrhosis, lung cancer, high blood pressure, stroke, and sterilization. The patients with liver disease are estimated to be 628,000. Approximately, 12,000 persons are dying by chronic liver disease and cirrhosis each year. Among the people of 15 years or older, persons dependent on alcohol are estimated to be 1,480,000. This study suggests policies to reduce the consumption of alcohol for planning for health promotion. Limitations of sites and times of sales and designation of sellers, designation of sites prohibiting drinking, limitation of alcohol sales promotion, and restrictions on advertisement can be inaugurated. Increase of price through the raise of tax and taxation of promotion cost. Education of high risk groups such as soldiers, pregnant women, and the youth can be introduced. Provision of alternative socialization programs instead of drinking. Some approaches on target groups were suggested.

• 한국노년학
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.945-962
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• 2018

This study was aimed to examine the association between resilience and mental health among individuals aged 65 and older. The number of the sample was 2,004 older people living in Chuncheon city. The dependent variables were measured with depression and mental well-being. Depression was measured by the Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression(CES-D) 10 items. Mental well-being was measured by Korean version of the Mental Health Continuum-Short Form(K-MHC-SF). The independent variable, resilience, was measured with the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale(CD-RISC). Adjusted for age, gender, region, education, living arrangement, religion, employment, income, and self-rated health, a logistic regression analysis result showed that resilience was negatively associated with depression among older adults. On the other hand, a multiple regression analysis result showed that resilience was positively associated with mental well-being among older adults. The study findings suggest that resilience can promote mental health in later life. Implications for older adults suffering from mental health problems are also discussed.

• 한국노년학
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.1035-1055
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• 2018

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between public care and family care. Public care for older adults began in 2008 with the implementation of the Long-Term Care insurance in South Korea. Although the expansion of public care has the purpose of reducing the care burden for the family, it is not easy to say whether the developments of public care system reduce the amount of family care for older family members. Theoretically, public care and family care are expected to have various relationships depending on the degree of the role and function(substitution, hierarchical compensatory, task specific, supplementation, complementarity). And literatures have showed inconsistent results depending on the country, data, and methods. In this study, we analyzed the relationship between two care types focusing on home care services for older persons. Analyses were based on data from the second(2008) to sixth(2016) waves of Korean Longitudinal Study of Ageing(KLoSA). To investigate elderly care dynamics in the households, we pooled the data for four changes between two periods(2008-2010, 2010-2012, 2012-2014, and 2014-2016). This study used an analytic sample of 262 older adults, who are aged 55 over and experienced public care at least one point of time. We used Fixed-Effects(FE) model to analyze the differences within the same individuals under the condition that time-invariant unobserved factors are controlled. This study distinguished the cases of entry into public care and other cases of exiting public care. The results showed that older people who are dependent on public care are less dependent on family care than before. In both entry and exit groups, negative relations were maintained, but in the entering stage of public care, the degree of negative relations was relatively small, whereas in the stage of maintaining or departing from public care, relatively negative relations were strong. At the beginning periods, even though public care increased, family care did not decrease significantly. On the other hand, at the time of ending public care and relying on family care, family care increased significantly. The results of this study show that the relationship between public care and family care is close to hierarchical compensatory model and varies according to the stage of caring transition. Also, it was found that the cases of transition from public care to family care have the biggest burden of elderly care than other groups.

• PNF and Movement
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.351-358
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• 2022

Purpose: This study aims to determine the correlation between the effects of contract-relax-antagonist-contract (CRAC) and contract-relax (CR) forms of proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation (PNF) stretching on balance during single-leg standing in elderly people. Methods: The participants were 20 elderly people in healthy condition and divided equally into two groups: the CRAC stretching group and the CR stretching group. Subjects were made to walk on a treadmill for 6 minutes before the stretching as a warm-up. CR and CRAC stretching were performed on the soleus. The dependent variables used to assess single-leg standing balance were overall stability(OSI), anterior/posterior(A/P) movement, and medial/lateral(M/L) movement. The statistical methods used to assess the differences between groups were verified using the Mann-Whitney U test and the Wilcoxon signed-rank test. Results: The CRAC group had significantly increased OSI, A/P and M/L after the PNF stretching intervention (p < 0.05). The CR group had significantly increased OSI and A/P after the PNF stretching intervention (p < 0.05), but M/L did not significantly increase (p > 0.05). There was no significant difference in stretching between CRAC and CR (p > 0.05). Conclusion: The results of this study revealed that CR and CRAC PNF stretching improved single-leg standing balance. CARC stretching before exercise is helpful for elderly people, as it improves balance.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.493-504
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• 2020

Background: There have been many studies on the associations between body mass index (BMI) and cognitive function. However, no study has ever compared the associations across the methods of categorizing BMI. In this study, we aimed to fill the gap in the previous studies and examine whether the obesity paradox is valid in the risk of cognitive function. Methods: Of the 10,254 people aged 45 and older from the Korean Longitudinal Study of Ageing from 2006 to 2016, 8,970 people were finalized as the study population. The dependent variable was whether a person has a normal cognitive function or not, and the independent variables of interest were BMI categorized by the World Health Organization Western Pacific Regional Office (WHO-WPRO) method, the WHO method, and a 10-group method. Covariates included sociodemographic factors, health behavior factors, and health status factors. A generalized linear mixed model analysis with a logit link was used. Results: In the adjusted model with all covariates, first, in the case of BMI categories of the WHO-WPRO method, underweight (odds ratio [OR], 1.16; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.15-1.17), overweight (OR, 1.36; 95% CI, 1.35-1.36), and obese (OR, 1.34; 95% CI, 1.33-1.34) groups were more likely to have a normal cognitive function than a normal-weight group. Next, in the case of BMI categories of the WHO method, compared to a normal-weight group, underweight (OR, 1.15; 95% CI, 1.14-1.16) and overweight (OR, 1.06; 95% CI, 1.06-1.07) groups were more likely to have a normal cognitive function; however, obese (OR, 0.62; 95% CI, 0.61-0.63) group was less likely to have it. Lastly, in the case of the 10-group method, as BMI increased, the likelihood to have a normal cognitive function changed like a wave, reaching a global top at group-7 (26.5 kg/㎡ ≤ BMI <28.0 kg/㎡). Conclusion: The associations between BMI and cognitive function differed according to how BMI was categorized among people aged 45 and older in Korea, which suggests that cognitive function may be positively associated with BMI in some categories of BMI but negatively in its other categories. Health policies to reduce cognitive impairment need to consider this association between BMI and cognitive function.