• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.52 no.6
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• pp.355-365
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• 2019

Objectives: In rural areas of Korea, where public transportation infrastructure is lacking and alternative systems are poor, the elderly experience inconveniences in using healthcare, although their need is high. This study aimed to analyze the association between the convenience of transportation and unmet healthcare needs among the rural elderly. Methods: The data used were collected in the 2016 Community Health Survey among rural elderly individuals aged 65 or older. Dependent variable was the unmet healthcare needs, explanatory variable was the convenience of transportation. The elderly were divided into 3 groups: with no driver in the household, with a driver, and the elderly individual was the driver (the self-driving group). Covariates were classified into predisposing, enabling, and need factors. They included gender, age, education, income, economic activity, household type, motor ability, subjective health level, number of chronic diseases, anxiety/depression, and pain/discomfort. The data were analyzed using logistic regression and stratification. Results: A significant association was found between the convenience of transportation and unmet healthcare needs. When examined unadjusted odds ratio of the group with a driver in the household, using the group with no driver as a reference, was 0.61 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.54 to 0.68), while that of the self-driving group was 0.34 (95% CI, 0.30 to 0.38). The odds ratios adjusted for all factors were 0.69 (95% CI, 0.59 to 0.80) and 0.79 (95% CI, 0.67 to 0.91). Conclusions: We confirmed a significant association between inconvenient transportation and unmet healthcare needs among the rural elderly even after adjustment for existing known factors. This implies that policies aimed at improving healthcare accessibility must consider the means of transportation available.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.21 no.5 s.77
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• pp.103-111
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• 2006

The purpose of this study was to analyse the relationships between cognitive abilities and driving characteristics of elderly drivers. Driving characteristics of elderly and younger drivers who were driving a fixed base driving simulator vehicle were examined. Participants consisted of 12 drivers over age 65 (the 'older' group) and 12 drivers between the ages of 25 and 55 (the "younger" group). As indices of cognitive ability, critical flicker fusion frequency (CFF) tests and cognitive reaction tests were given before the driving task. CFF was also tested after the simulated driving task for both groups. Cognitive reaction tests, which were composed of speed estimation tests, multiple choice reaction tests and obstacle avoidance tests, were developed by the Korean Road Traffic Safety Authority in 2003. CFF values between the two groups exhibited significant differences both before and after the task, with a p-value less than 0.01 and a t-value of -3.01 before the test and a p-value less than 0.031 and a t-value of -2.35 after the test. Older drivers' CFF values were lower than those of the younger. However, there was no difference in older or younger driver CFF values before and after the task within the same group. Except for the multiple choice reaction test, there was no difference in cognitive reaction test results between the two groups. The elderly drivers made more errors though they did not differ from the younger drivers in reaction times. At the simulated driving task the reaction time of the elderly driver was longer than that of the younger; however, the driving speed of the elderly was lower and the number of collisions greater. There was a positive correlation (r=.496) between the number of errors in the multiple choice reaction test and the number of collisions in the driving task. Therefore, it was identified that critical attributes contributing to automobile crashes involving elderly drivers included cognitive difficulty in judging and responding to complex situations.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2009.06a
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• pp.43-44
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• 2009

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.19 no.11
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• pp.474-481
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• 2019

Korea entered the aged society in 2018 with the elderly population accounting for 14.4% of the total population, and it is expected to enter the super-aged society in 2026. In particular, it is predicted that by 2050, the elderly population will be 38% of the total population, making it one of the countries with the highest number of elderly people in the world. The increase in the elderly population is naturally leading to an increase in the number of traffic accidents among elderly drivers, in 2017, there were 26,713 elderly driver accidents over 65 years of age, with 848 people dying and 38,627 injured. Compared with 2011, the number of accidents and injuries has doubled and the number of deaths has increased 1.4 times. This study determined that the main factors of the increase in traffic accidents were the characteristics of elderly drivers, such as a decrease in visual/hearing ability, cognitive and information processing ability, and muscle strength. Therefore, it raised the necessity of autonomous vehicle(level 2) for elderly driver who can minimize the burden of driving and aimed to study the function of autonomous vehicle for elderly driver who is not familiar with new technology. Based on this, four functions of autonomous vehicles for elderly drivers were derived, such as providing clear information according to the road environment, considering physical characteristics of drivers, simplifying interface, and reinforcing in-vehicle safety devices.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.139-144
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• 2019

The increase in the elderly population also increased the damage and deaths of the elderly drivers. However, studies on the severity and severity of the elderly driver are not actively conducted and the factors are unknown. In this study, I tried to find out the factors affecting the damage and severity of the elderly driver in the frontal collision and to utilize them additionally in the severity classification. Collision Deformation Classification (CDC) Code was used to check the extent of damage to the vehicle. Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS) was used to determine the injury parts and severity of injury, and the Injury Severity Score (ISS) to confirm the severity of the patient. The odds ratios of severe injury patients were found to be 7.381 in the subjects with 5 or more deformation extent and the ${\beta}$ value of the deformation extent was 0.453 in the analysis of the severity by linear regression analysis. Therefore, the degree of deformation extent of 5 or more can be suggested as a criterion that can be used additionally to the severity classification in the elderly driver.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.61-66
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• 2010

The objective of this paper is to study the usability of the ingress/egress of elderly people, and analyze the physiological workload electromyography (EMG). We investigated the factors of discomfort while the elderly people are using the ingress/egress. Experiments were performed using a seating buck with 22 elderly participants (over 65 years old). The results showed that different muscles are activated during ingress and egress. A system called "easy access" was found which helps to access easily when a driver gets into a car. The current easy access was compared a newly proposed one. It was found that elderly people use less muscle during in/egress in the new easy access system.

• Journal of Convergence for Information Technology
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.161-167
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• 2021

This study was conducted to identify the relationship between the dual task performance and driving behavior of the elderly driver in order to identify whether the dual task can be utilized as a test to screen the driving ability of the elderly driver. We surveyed general information and driving-related information for 32 normal elderly drivers, and evaluated Y-DuCog(Yonsei-Dual task Cognitive screening) and the K-DBQ (Korean-Driving Behavior Questionnaire). As a result of the study, the performance of the dual task using the pegboard task and the animal name speaking showed a significant correlation with the score of the violation domain of K-DBQ. With this study, it was possible to confirm the possibility as a test for discrimination of driving ability.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.17 no.7
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• pp.668-673
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• 2011

This paper presents design and control of a wheelchair robot for handicapped or elderly persons. Novel multi-functional design concepts are introduced. The first function is to balance the chair always parallel to the flat ground so that the driver feels comfortable when he/she drives on the slope. The second function is to help the driver to stand up by pushing the chair so that the driver can get out from the chair with ease. The third design is to make it foldable for easy carrying for automobiles. The last function is an immediate stop and start protection. Experimental studies are conducted to demonstrate the feasibility and functionality of each mechanical design.

• KIPS Transactions on Software and Data Engineering
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• v.6 no.11
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• pp.537-542
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• 2017

Aggressive driving is a major cause of car accidents. Previous studies have mainly analyzed young driver's aggressive driving tendency, yet they were only done through pure clustering or classification technique of machine learning. However, since elderly people have different driving habits due to their fragile physical conditions, it is necessary to develop a new method such as enhancing the characteristics of driving data to properly analyze aggressive driving of elderly drivers. In this study, acceleration data collected from a smartphone of a driving vehicle is analyzed by a newly proposed ECA(Enhanced Clustering method for Acceleration data) technique, coupled with a conventional clustering technique (K-means Clustering, Expectation-maximization algorithm). ECA selects high-intensity data among the data of the cluster group detected through K-means and EM in all of the subjects' data and models the characteristic data through the scaled value. Using this method, the aggressive driving data of all youth and elderly experiment participants were collected, unlike the pure clustering method. We further found that the K-means clustering has higher detection efficiency than EM method. Also, the results of K-means clustering demonstrate that a young driver has a driving strength 1.29 times higher than that of an elderly driver. In conclusion, the proposed method of our research is able to detect aggressive driving maneuvers from data of the elderly having low operating intensity. The proposed method is able to construct a customized safe driving system for the elderly driver. In the future, it will be possible to detect abnormal driving conditions and to use the collected data for early warning to drivers.

• Korean Journal of Culture and Social Issue
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.81-102
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• 2006

This study focused on driver's carefulness and researched the relationship between driving confidence and driving behaviour in elderly and young drivers. In order to evaluate the driving confidence level, 'Driving Confidence Scale' was developed. 175 of young drivers(younger than 25) and 150 of elderly drivers(older than 65) conducted Driving Confidence Scale. They answered their driving patterns; driving history, annual mileage, the frequency of committing traffic violation, and experience of accident within 5 years. Elderly driver's data was collected by face to face interview. The factors of driving confidence were analyzed and the driving confidence level of young and elderly drivers was compared. Driving Confidence was consisted of 4 factors; environment of traffic condition, safe driving, driving ability, attention. Elderly driver's confidence was lower than young driver's. Elderly drivers in high driving confidence group, showed longer driving history and they were tend to commit violations more frequently than elerly drivers in low driving confidence group. Young drivers, whose driving confidence level was high answered more driving history, annual mileage, the frequency of committing traffic violation and experience of accident within 5 years.