• The Korean Journal of Community Living Science
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.429-444
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• 2011

The objective of this study was to identify the risk factor and protection factor related to suicide ideation in each life course based on an ecological-system perspective. A questionnaire was carried out for 393 adolescents, 473 adults and 376 aged men living nationwide. The results are as follows. First, the suicide ideation was low with 1.78 points in the full mark of 5 points. Second, the difference in suicide ideation, depression, hopelessness, stress in the organic system variables, family solidarity in the micro system variables, intermediate system variables, residence, the existence/inexistence of counselling center and the influence of mass media in mezo system variables in each life course were significant. Third, the relative influence of organic system variables on the suicide ideation were largest in all life courses. Further, the depression and the influence of mass media in all life courses were a risk factor of suicide ideation and stress was also a risk factor of suicide ideation in the case of adolescents and the aged. When examining protection factors of suicide ideation, family solidarity, minute as it is, works as the protection factor of suicide ideation in the case of adolescents. For the adults, living in a metropolis was a protection factor from suicide ideation. For the aged, family solidarity, family history of suicide and adult children's attention to their friends and neighbors (intermediate system variable) were protection factors from suicide ideation. I suggested that policy, service, counseling and educational program proper to each life course were necessary to lower risk factors of suicide ideation and to improve protection factors.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.39-49
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• 2013

Purpose: To analyze the structure of Korean nurse labor market and examine its effect on hospital nurse staffing. Methods: Secondary data were obtained from Statistics Korea, Education Statistics, and Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service and Patient Survey. Intensity of monopsony in the nurse labor market was measured by Herfindahl Hirshman Index (HHI). Hospital nurse staffing level was divided into high and low. While controlling for confounding factors such as inpatient days and severity mix of patients, effects of characteristics of nurse labor markets on nurse staffing levels were examined using multi-level logistic regressions. Results: For characteristics of nurse labor markets, metropolitan areas had high intensity of monopsony, while the capital area had competitive labor market and the unemployed nurse rate was higher than other areas. Among hospital characteristics, bed occupancy rate was significantly associated with nurse staffing levels. Among characteristics of nurse labor markets, the effect of HHI was indeterminable. Conclusion: The Korean nurse labor market has different structure between the capital and other metropolitan areas. But the effect of the structure of nurse labor market on nurse staffing levels is indeterminable. Characteristics such as occupancy rate and number of beds are significantly associated with nurse staffing levels. Further study in support of the effect of nurse labor market is needed.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Fundamentals of Nursing
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.316-324
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• 2009

Purpose: The aim of the study was to identify the relationships among age, activities of daily living and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) for centenarians in Busan. Methods: Forty-nine centenarians (2 males and 47 females) participated in the study, done from April to July, 2006. Pace-to-face interviews were used to collect data. Activities of daily living were measured using K-ADL, K-IADL and health-related quality of life, using the Short Form Health Survey (SF-36). Results: Over 50% of the centenarians reported independence for six-items but not for bathing. With regard to type of dependency, 77.6% were independent in transferring, 71.4%, in using the toilet, 67.3%, in feeding and in continence and 57.1% in dressing but just 24.5% were independent in bathing. Age was significantly associated with K-IADL (r= -.303, p= .03). The centenarians were more impaired in physical health components compared to mental health components for health-related quality of life. Conclusion: These results may contribute to a better understanding of activities of daily living and health-related quality of life of centenarians. The findings are relevant to health professionals, in particular professionals who are developing wellness programs to optimize health-related quality of life and functional status for the extremely old age population.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Fundamentals of Nursing
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.334-342
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• 2010

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of Tai Chi exercise on flexibility, balance, walking ability, muscle strength, bone mineral density, and fracture risk in institutionalized elders. Method: A quasi-experimental pretest-posttest design with a nonequivalent comparison group was utilized, and 53 older adults living in one institution were recruited and assigned to one of two groups, experimental group (18) or comparison (20). Both groups completed posttest measures at 6 months. There was a 31% rate of dropouts. Tai Chi exercise was provided twice a week for 24 weeks. Outcome measurements were conducted by a physiotherapist at a university hospital health promotion center who did not know the group assignment. Results: At 6 months, the experimental group had significantly greater grip strength(t=2.12, p=.04), back muscle strength (t=2.42, p=.02), balance (t=5.31, p<001), and flexibility (t=3.57, p<.001). They also showed significantly greater bone mineral density of lumbar spine and femur, and reduced fracture risk. Conclusion: Tai Chi exercise was safely and effectively used with institutionalized elders for 6 months and significantly improved physical fitness, bone mineral density along with a reduction in fracture risk. Whether Tai Chi exercise would lead to prevention of fall episodes and fall related fractures in this population will require further study.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Rural Health Nursing
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.34-43
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• 2008

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to suggest new direction for domiciliary care for elders provided by public institutions in rural areas. Method: The participants in the study were elders using one of 11 public health care institutions, of which 8 operated day care services exclusively, and 3 operated both day care and short-term respite care services. A survey was conducted using a structured questionnaire that included items on general characteristics of the service users, conditions of the services, personnel, financial status, facilities, and perception of the tasks of the staff. Result: The service content of the day care centers included Western and Chinese medical service, physical services, activities of ADL, nursing care services, meal services and transportation services. Domiciliary care centers provided a wide variety of health and social welfare service for elders. Personnel consisted of 3 to 8 staff for day care centers and 7 to 10 for domiciliary care centers. Both types of centers rely on financial support from local government for operation. The perception of the staff was the need for operation of these centers by public health facilities such as public health centers and sub-centers. Conclusion: The result suggest a need to activate the function of public institutions to provide domiciliary care for elders. For this new change, the role as a social support system must be developed.

• Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.141-151
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• 2007

Parkinson's disease is one of the most frequent neurodegenerative diseases, which mainly affects the elderly. Parkinson's disease is often difficult to differentiate from atypical parkinson diorder such as progressive supranuclear palsy, multiple system atrophy, dementia with Lewy body, and corticobasal ganglionic degeneration, based on the clinical findings because of the similarity of phenotypes and lack of diagnostic markers. The accurate diagnosis of Parkinson's disease and atypical Parkinson disorders is not only important for deciding on treatment regimens and providing prognosis, but also it is critical for studies designed to investigate etiology and pathogenesis of parkinsonism and to develop new therapeutic strategies. Although degeneration of the nigrostriatal dopamine system results in marked loss of striatal dopamine content in most of the diseases causing parkinsonism, pathologic studies revealed different topographies of the neuronal cell loss in Parkisonism. Since the regional cerebral glucose metabolism is a marker of integrated local synaptic activity and as such is sensitive to both direct neuronal/synaptic damage and secondary functional disruption at synapses distant from the primary site of pathology, an assessment of the regional cerebral glucose metabolism with F-18 FDG PET is useful in the differential diagnosis of parkinsonism and evaluating the pathophysiology of parkisonism.

• Korean Journal of Applied Biomechanics
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.381-386
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• 2010

This study examined the changes in the walking pattern during level walking under low illumination conditions. Fourteen male subjects ($22.1{\pm}2.21$ years, $174{\pm}3.74\;cm$, $68.86{\pm}10.81\;kg$) with normal vision and no disabilities were enrolled in this study. All experiments were performed on a level walkway with three conditions: normal walking (preferred & low speed) and walking with low illumination. 3D motion capturing system was used for acquisition and analysis of the walking motion data with a sampling frequency of 120Hz. The walking speed, normalized jerk(NJ) at the center of mass(COM), wrist and heel, knee and elbow joint angle, ratio of the knee joint angle to elbow joint angle and the toe clearance on stance phase were used to compare the differences in walking pattern between the two illumination conditions, The results showed that the walking speed and joint angles decreased in low illumination, whereas the NJ and toe minimum clearance increased. In low illumination, most variables were similar to effects of low speed walking, but toe clearance was different from the effects of low speed. These results can be used as primary data for examining the changes in the level walking pattern of young adults under low illumination. Further study will be needed to compare these results in young adults with those in the elderly.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Physical Medicine
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.63-71
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• 2009

Purpose：The purpose of this study was to investigate how much the type of footwear affects these preference and wearing conditions in older women. Methods：Two hundred eight women aged $60{\sim}87$ years were recruited from the elder's College and welfare center in Daegu. Each subject performed questionnaire surveys. Chi-square($X^{-2}$) test was used to compare the outcome for differences of age, weight, height, heel height and footwear size. SPSS 12.0 program was used in this study. Results：The type of their possessive shoes were casual shoes (24.8%), running shoes (20.1%) and dress shoes (16%) etc. The type of their short-distance outdoor shoes were casual shoes (32.1%), running shoes (31.4%) etc. The type of their long-distance outdoor shoes were platform shoes (40.3%), dress shoes (31%) etc. Conclusion：The heel height of platform shoes had no relation with demographic factors (age, weight, height), but the size of platform shoes had relation with demographic factors such as age and height except for weight(p<0.05).

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.9 no.9
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• pp.295-303
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• 2009

This autobiographical narrative interview study aims at exploring how A, one Korean 82-year-old female farmer strived vigorously to learn by herself and to teach her children (4 boys and 3 girls) despite the fact that she was not afford to pay tuitions on time. From 40 times of interview-data three major findings emerged: (1) A learned how to read Korean Japanese and Chinese characters and how to calculate at a free-of-charge teaching center although her father didn't approve of her learning; (2) A tried very hard to earn money inside and outside home to support her children's education, organizing many mutual fraternity meetings to seek mutual financial support, selling mostly farm products as well as farming almost all day and everyday; (3) Although it was so hard to educate three daughters, A was proud of the fact that she was able to put her second daughter to a high school with a promise to pay her tuition later. Some implications of the findings are added.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.28 no.7
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• pp.617-627
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• 2019

This study investigated the relationship between heat-related illnesses obtained from healthcare big data and daily maximum temperature observed in seven metropolitan cities in summer during 2013~2015. We found a statistically significant positive correlation (r = 0.4~0.6) between daily maximum temperature and number of the heat-related patients from Pearson's correlation analyses. A time lag effect was not observed. Relative Risk (RR) analysis using the Generalized Additive Model (GAM) showed that the RR of heat-related illness increased with increasing threshold temperature (maximum RR = 1.21). A comparison of the RRs of the seven cities, showed that the values were significantly different by geographical location of the city and had different variations for different threshold temperatures. The RRs for elderly people were clearly higher than those for the all-age group. Especially, a maximum value of 1.83 was calculated at the threshold temperature of $35^{\circ}C$ in Seoul. In addition, relatively higher RRs were found for inland cities (Seoul, Gwangju, Daegu, and Daejeon), which had a high frequency of heat waves. These results demonstrate the significant risk of heat-related illness associated with increasing daily maximum temperature and the difference in adaptation ability to heat wave for each city, which could help improve the heat wave advisory and warning system.