• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.7
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• pp.3305-3310
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• 2014

Background: A cancer survivor is defined as anyone who has been diagnosed with cancer, from the time of diagnosis through the rest of their life. The purpose of this study was to examine whether physical functions, health-related outcomes, nutritional status and blood markers in community-dwelling cancer survivors aged 75 years and older are different from those who do not have cancer Materials and Methods: Two hundred seventy-five participants were asked by physicians, nurses, and physical therapists, questions regarding cancer history in a face-to-face interview. Data were collected for demographic information, physical functions, such as handgrip strength, knee extension power, abdominal muscle strength, static standing balance, walking speed and the timed-up-and-go test, health-related outcomes, nutritional status, and blood markers. The measured parameters of survivor diagnosed with cancer were compared with those without a history of cancer. Results: Thirty-seven older adults were previously diagnosed with cancer. Female cancer survivors had lower knee extension power (p<0.05), abdominal muscle strength (p<0.05), walking speed (p<0.05), timed-up-and-go test score (p<0.05), and time to spend on walking per day (p<0.05) than older women without a history of cancer. In men, none of the measured parameters were significantly different between cancer survivors and older men with no history of cancer. Conclusions: The present study shows that partial physical function of women cancer survivors aged 75 years and older differs from that in women with no history of cancer.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.221-230
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• 2016

Purpose: This study was conducted to examine the factors associated with meaning in life among elderly female community dwellers aged 65 or older who were living alone. Methods: A quota sample of 222 elderly female living alone was recruited. Data were analyzed with descriptive statistics, independent t-test, one-way ANOVA, Welch's test, Pearson's correlation, and multiple regression using the SPSS 22.0 program. Results: The factors associated with meaning in life included age, education level, perceived economic status, perceived health status, social support, and loneliness. This regression model explained 66% of the variance in meaning in life. Conclusion: Based on the results, comprehensive nursing intervention programs for enhancing meaning in life are required.

• Journal of Labour Economics
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.31-65
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• 2015

This paper examines why older wage workers leave their jobs and what determine the hazard of retirement. Major results are as follows. First, aged workers leaving their jobs because of formal mandatory retirement are relatively few in number and largely males employed in large establishments. Second, a higher hourly wage is associated with a greater retirement hazard, especially among male employees of large firms. Third, informal mandatory retirement puts a strong pressure towards retirement among older female workers. Fourth, poor health is the primary reason for retirement among older workers, especially for females and small-firm employees. Finally, reasonable hours and greater flexibility of work tend to lower retirement hazard. We discuss some implications of the results for old-age labor market policies.

• Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.173-177
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• 2003

This study was done to investigate the relationship of socioeconomic status and food intake to cognitive status of the older population. The subjects of this study consisted of 214 older persons aged 60 - 84 years. Interviews were conducted using the health-related habits and food frequency questionnaires to provide basic information for nutrition education program. We evaluated the current food consumption-pattern and cognitive status of the subjects. The results of this study were as follows： Mean age of the subjects was 69.7${\pm}$7.4 years. The average cognitive function score of the subjects was 7.9${\pm}$2.0 (full score was 10.0). Male had a higher cognitive status score than female. There was significant difference between cognitive status score and age, education level, pocket money, physical activity and family type. The subjects who had a higher cognitive status score ate more fish and meats group and milk and milk products than the subjects that had a lower cognitive status score. These results have demonstrated that various socioeconomic variables and food intake pattern affect on cognitive status with aging and suggest that proper nutrition education and adequate nutrient intake in quality and quantity are essential in maintaining cognitive status in later life.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Physical Medicine
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.161-171
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• 2007

Purpose : The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of footwear on gait in older adults. Methods : The footwear consists of loafer with fixation and mule and slipper without fixation. Twenty one female older adults voluntarily participated in this study. Each participant walked on the gait system GAITRite and measured temporal-spatial gait parameters. And the participants wore loafer, mule, slipper randomly. We measured stance time, swing time, heel-to-heel BOS, double support time, velocity, cadence, FAP as temporal-spatial gait parameters. Results : Three gait parameters showed significant difference statistically among 7 gait parameters. The stance time increased as loafer, mule, barefoot, slipper orderly. And there was a significant difference statistically (p<.05). The swing time increased as slipper, barefoot, mule, loafer orderly. And there was a significant difference statistically(p<.05). And the heel-to-heel BOS increased as barefoot, loafer, mule, slipper orderly. And there was a significant difference statistically(p<.05) according to footwear type. Conclusion : The footwear type with high stability like loafer is considered better than footwear type with low stability like mule and slipper for the elderly.

• Korean Institute of Interior Design Journal
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.83-91
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• 2016

This study is a basic research to suggest user-centered healthcare environmental color, which aims to analyze tendency of color consciousness and preference depending on the user characteristics (generation, gender, residential area, and environment). For this purpose, this study constructed an analysis tool through the literature review with regard to environmental color of healthcare facility and influential factors of color preference. Besides, an online survey regarding general usage and satisfaction, health related color consciousness, and color preference tendency of healthcare facility was conducted targeting from 20s to 60s, total 1,500 persons. The results of this study are as follows: (1) The usage and satisfaction of healthcare facilities were higher for older generation and accessible urban area. (2) The respondents were aware that color and health are related, recognizing 'green' as healthy and stress relieving color. Besides, 'natural' and 'clear' was the highest in health related color image. 'Light' which relates to vitality was high as well for older generation. (3) In the color preference tendency survey, hue PB was generally the most highly preferred, in details, younger generation preferred B and R while older generation preferred G. The survey also showed high value and chroma were preferred, while female and younger generation preferred high value of 9.0 and low chroma close to achromatic color, which presented older generation preferred vivid color.

• 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.

• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.1007-1018
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• 2023

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to examine whether the tailored home-delivered meal (HDM) services included nutrition counseling impacts alleviating self-rated frailty among low-income older adults in Korea. SUBJECTS/METHODS: Pre- and post-test were implemented on May 27 and on November 25 in 2019 during 3 weeks, respectively, before and after the 6 months intervention program. Participants completed a questionnaire measuring frailty, malnutrition, food security, depression, and underlying diseases. Initially, 136 older adults were selected as participants for this study, they were recipients of a free meal program from 2 senior welfare centers in Seoul, the final sample size of those who completed the intervention program was 117 (female 70.9%, male 29.1%). Statistical analyses were conducted with IBM SPSS package program, paired t-test and χ² test to validate the test. RESULTS: There were statistically significant differences in the score of the Tilburg Frailty Indicator (TFI) before and after receiving the tailored HDM services (pre-test 9.46, post-test 2.8, P < 0.01). The differences in the score of TFI by 3 risk groups at the pre-test decreased as a result of receiving these services. CONCLUSIONS: The tailored HDM services alleviated the self-rated frailty of low-income older adults with limited mobility in a community setting. Based on the positive outcomes this study could be applied to developing social services for aging in place.

• Culinary science and hospitality research
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.19-27
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• 2017

The present study was aimed at evaluating whether white rice consumption has any association with selected measures of dietary intake and nutrients, including various variables of energy intake, major vitamin, mineral intakes, and the risk of health characteristics for over 60 years older. A total of 1,433 subjects (658 male and 775 females) 60 years or older from the fifth Korea National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey(KNHANES) 2010 participated and the Food Commodity Intake Database were used in this study. Levels of percent energy intake from rice were classified into 4 groups (R1, R2, R3, R4 groups: 25% of each) between male and female elderly using data from KNHANES. One of the interesting findings was that the higher rice consumers had a significantly sufficient intakes of a range of nutrients such as total energy intake, protein, carbohydrate, calcium, mineral, sodium, potassium, and niacin in female elderly, but not much in male. Other finding was that as the higher intake of rice group, prevalence of hypertension (53.5%, 63.4%, 50.3%, 46.3%, p=0.035), dyslipidemia (16.6%, 18.0%, 14.5%, 11.1%, p=0.008), sarcopenia (46.1%, 46.1%, 40.2%, 28.8%, p=0.012), sarcopenic obesity (25.4%, 31.5%, 23.7%, 15.5%, p=0.008) were significantly less than other groups in female, but not much in male. In conclusion, we obtained valuable basic information on recommended rice-centered diet could give us good nutritional status and eventually bring the prevention of some chronic diseases in elderly, especially in female.

• Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology & Nutrition
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.115-120
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• 2015

Purpose: Cholecystectomy is rarely performed in the child and adolescent. However, it is associated with several conditions. This study was conducted to describe the characteristics of pediatric patient who underwent cholecystectomy unrelated to hematologic disorders, and then to suggest its clinical significance in management by comparing a simple and complicated gallbladder disease. Methods: We reviewed cases of cholecystectomy in pediatric patients (under 18 years old) at a single institution between January 2003 and October 2014. There were 143 cases during the study period and 24 were selected as the subject group. Results: There were 7 male (29.2%) and 17 female (70.8%) patients. The mean age was 13.1 years old, and 66.6% of patients were older than 12 years. Mean body weight was 52.7 kg, and body mass index was $21.7kg/m^2$, with 41.7% of patients being overweight or obese. We could identify a female predominance and high proportion of overweight or obesity in a complicated disease. There were also significantly increased levels of aspartate transaminase (AST), alanine transaminase (ALT), alkaline phosphatase (ALP) and bilirubin in this group. Most patients (87.5%) underwent laparoscopic cholecystectomy. Conclusion: Cholecystectomy for diseases unrelated to hematologic disorders is rarely performed in the child and adolescent. In general, female patients who are overweight or obese, and those older than 12 years old, require laparoscopic cholecystectomy owing to multiple gallstones. This condition has a tendency to show a complicated gallbladder disease and significantly increased levels of AST, ALT, ALP, and bilirubin.