• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.479-488
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• 2018

This study was conducted to investigate factors affecting low body weight of solitary elderly people by grasping the illness and health behavior of elderly living alone. Using the raw data of the community health survey from 2014, the data of 922 elderly living alone who are 65 years or older were used for the final analysis. Data were analyzed by technical analysis statistics, The Rao Scott $x^2$ test, and logistic regression analysis using the composite analysis module of the SPSS/WIN 22.0 program. The results of this study showed that elderly living alone had a high percentage of chronic diseases as well as poor health behaviors such as smoking, drinking, lack of exercise, poor eating habits, difficulties in dentistry due to dentures, and poor subjective health status. Result of logistic regression analysis the risk probability of low-weight due to gender of the elderly living alone is as follows. Risk of low body weight because of smoking was 3.004 times among occasional smokers in women and the elderly, while risk of low body weight due to walking amount is less than 3 days the possibility that the person walking is low is 1.420 times significantly higher. When feeling subjective stress, the possibility of low body weight was 2.220 times greater for male elderly and 1.282 times for female elderly. The probability of low body weight for a person with a poor subjective health level was 3.633 times for male elderly and 1.590 times for female elderly. Based on the results of this study, it is necessary to establish appropriate nursing intervention and management strategies to improve health behavior of low body weight elderly living alone. It is also necessary to conduct additional studies considering various variables such as physical, psychological, and social characteristics of low-weight elderly individuals.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.1089-1092
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• 2013

Background: Elderly patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) have a poor outcome because of co-morbidities, poor tolerance to intensive chemotherapy and inherently more resistant disease. Clofarabine is a second generation nucleoside analogue which has shown promising activity in elderly patients with AML. This study was conducted to review the outcome of treatment with clofarabine in a group of such patients. Methods: The records of 5 elderly patients who were diagnosed to have AML and treated with clofarabine over a 12 month period were reviewed retrospectively. Results: There were 2 female and 3 male patients with a median age of 68 years (range 65-82). At the time of treatment, 2 patients had newly diagnosed AML not considered suitable for intensive therapy, while 3 patients had partial or no response to conventional chemotherapy. The overall response rate was 100%, all patients achieving a complete remission. Induction and consolidation were well tolerated. All patients developed neutropenia with a median duration of 20 days (range 17-42). One patient developed hand and foot syndrome and a generalized rash but recovered. There was no mortality and all patients remained in remission after a median follow-up of 5.2 months (Range 3-10). Conclusion: Clofarabine (alone or in combination) is active in elderly AML patients with an acceptable safety profile and should be considered a potential option in this group.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.111-121
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• 2005

This study was to performed to assess social factors and physical health status. The subjects of the study were 103 elderly people of age over 85 years living in Ganghwa-gun area. The method of this research was based on the interview-survey with questionnaire. Chi-square test was the main data analysis method. The subject group was composed of 36 males and 67 females, the average age being 91.0 $\pm$ 3.2 years old for the males and 91.1 $\pm$ 3.4 years old for the females. The aged average height and weight were 161.0 $\pm$ 7.9 cm and 54.6 $\pm$ 7.8 kg in males, 141.0 $\pm$ 8.2 cm and 42.2 $\pm$ 7.9 kg in females which were lower than the Korean average standard but the mean BMIs of both male and female showed normal range. Their level of education was lower and they tended to be religious. The aged population might be economically poor. Their level of living standards tended to have been lower-middle and lower class. The mean age of their parents' death were 64.3 $\pm$ 17.2 years in males, 59.0 $\pm$ 14.9 years in females for the father and 70.9 $\pm$ 15.5 years in males, 66.8 $\pm$ 16.6 years in females for the mother. The rate of living together with their family or spouse in the female aged was $83.2\%$ higher than in the male aged. They tended to have engaged in hobbies that require less movement. Of the kinds of hobby, 'TV watching ($47.8\%$ in male and $44.9\%$ in female) was the highest. Ratios of the drinking and the smoking elderly were $30.6\%$, $25.0\%$ in male and $7.5\%$, $18.8\%$ in female but they tended to have never drunken and smoked. Of the subjects, $42.9\%$ spend 8$\~$9 hours for sleeping in male and $35.8\%$ spend 10 hours for sleeping in female. They tended to have not done any particular health behavior. The most common diseases were digestive disease in male, arthritis and hypertension in female. Most elderly males ($47.3\%$) and females ($61.2\%$) had 1$\~$2 diseases.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.31-40
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• 2009

Purpose: This study was to investigate the factors affecting the self-rated health of vulnerable elderly in community. Methods: The subjects were 2,328 elderly over 65 years who were enrolled in the Visiting Health Care Center in J-gu of S-city from Apr. 2007 to Sep. 2008. Data were collected using questionnaires including general characteristics, health related behavior and health status by nurse at the time of enrollment. The collected data were analyzed by descriptive statistics, test and multivariate logistic regression. Results: 47.2% of the male subjects and 57.2% of the female subjects rated their health "poor". Gender differences were observed in the factors affecting on Self-Rated Health. ADL, depression and the number of diseases played a major role for men, whereas depression, IADL, the number of diseases, ADL, regular exercise and education played a major role for women. These factors explained $17{\sim}29%$ of variance in Self-Rated Health. Conclusion: Gender-specific programs for vulnerable elderly may be developed based on this study. Both physical and psychological functions need to be integrated into the programs to improve self-rated health of vulnerable elderly.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.309-320
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• 2019

Objectives: This study was undertaken to compare dietary life of the elderly living alone and in a family, and to compare differences based on gender, for the 2013-2016 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES). Methods: The subjects included 2,612 elderly people aged over 65 years who participated in the health survey, health examination and nutrition survey. Subjects on a diet therapy were excluded. This study analyzed the general characteristics, dietary habits, daily energy and nutrient intakes, CPF ratio, estimated average requirement (EAR), nutrient adequacy ratio (NAR) and mean adequacy ratio (MAR), index of nutrient quality (INQ), and food consumption of the elderly living alone and in a family. We also compared the differences based on gender. Results: Daily intake of food, water, dietary fiber, potassium, retinol, and riboflavin were low in the male elderly subjects living alone. The elderly living with family revealed higher NAR and MAR as compared to the elderly living alone. Although all MAR values were <1, the elderly living alone had lower values. Considering the intake of food, the consumption of seaweed, fish and shellfish, and oils (animal) was higher in elderly men living with families, whereas women living with families consumed more vegetables, fruits, seaweeds and seafood, as compared to their counterparts living alone. Furthermore, analyzing the foods consumed by the elderly people living alone, female subjects consumed more seaweed, milk and animal oil as compared to male subjects. Conclusions: The results of this study indicate that the elderly living alone have poor nutrient intake as compared to the elderly living with families. Based on this research data, we recommend that it is necessary to improve the health and nutritional status of the elderly living alone.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.210-222
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• 2004

In recent years, the number and proportion of Korean elderly have grown rapidly, and elderly individuals show a disproportionate risk for poor nutritional status. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship of sociodemographic background to nutrient intake of persons 65 years of age or older, living in 15 cities in Korea. Data on 1973 subjects (603 males, 1370 females), who participated in the Korean Elderly Nutrition Survey (2000), were analyzed. Their mean age was 72.3 years and their mean body mass index (BMI) was 24.2 kg/$m^2$. Basic sociodemographic data were obtained through personal interviews. The 98-item semi-food frequency questionnaire, developed and previously validated for Korean middle-aged and elderly subjects, was administered. “Percentage of subjects who consumed under 75％ Korean RDA,” “number of nutrients consumed below 75％ Korean RDA,” “mean nutrient adequacy ratio,” and “nutrient density” were used to determine nutritional status. Male elderly had better nutritional quality than female elderly. Nutritional quality decreased with age, especially in older elderly (over 75). Elderly who were underweight (BMI 〈 20 kg/$m^2$) showed poorer nutritional quality than those who were normal weight (BMI 20∼25 kg/$m^2$) and overweight (BMI $\geq$ 25 kg/$m^2$). Elderly who lived alone had significantly poorer nutritional quality than those who lived with a spouse, and/or with children. Lower education level and economic dependence also showed lower nutritional quality. A stepwise multiple regression analysis was performed to examine the effects of specific sociodemographic factors on nutritional quality. For number of nutrients under 75％ RDA as a dependent variable, education level explained 4.8％ of the variance, followed by living status, age, body mass index, gender, and living expense support (Model $R^2$ = 0.091). For mean nutrient adequacy ratio as a dependent variable, model $R^2$ was 0.098. Therefore, sociodemographic variables such as gender, age, body mass index, living status, educational level, and economic status influenced elderly nutrition status. These results indicate that an elderly nutrition intervention should focus on subjects who are poorly educated, living alone, age 75 or older, and/or underweight.

• Korean journal of food and cookery science
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.81-94
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• 1999

As the elderly population has increased in the advanced countries, food intake, relationship of nutrient intake and disease has become major problem in the aged. To investigate the dietary behaviors and the preference of food of the elderly for developing meal planning, the study was conducted through survey questionnaires including 24-hr dietary recall, dietary behaviors, food preference and frequency of food intake to 352 elderly (104 male and 248 female) who were more than 60 years old and living in Seoul. Most of subjects ate three meals regulary and the most preferred taste was sweet and the less preferred taste was sour. Dietary behaviors according to educational level were shown that the skipping meal time and duration time of one meal were significant difference in educational level. Most of the elderly subjects like kimchi and soybean paste soup. The more educated elderly were preferred milk. The reason of dislike of milk was bad flavor and diarrhea. Most of them who graduated from university and high school selected fishes because of good for health primary, otherwise no educated, elementary school and middle school graduated elderly selected vegetables primary. Meats, fishes, seaweeds, mushrooms, fruits, milk and milk products, eggs and vegetables intakes of total elderly subjects were significantly positively related to educational level. With respect to milk and milk products intakes, cheese, yogurt (curd) and milk intake of elderly was significantly negatively related to age. Therefore education for developing desirable dietary behaviors and improving the meal patterns should be in forced to elderly, especially who had poor educational background in order to manage the meal planning and to care for their health in the later life.

• Proceeding of Spring/Autumn Annual Conference of KHA
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• 2008.04a
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• pp.323-327
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• 2008

The population of the elderly and elderly living alone goes on increasing. Most elderly does not want to move into another place out of their present living environment. So it is essential to know their living conditions for the quality of living, especially the aged living alone out of their children' care. Unfortunately there is scarcely any house designed for the aged, especially elderly living alone until now. So this study investigated the living environment of the elderly living alone in gunsan city. The ratio of the female aged living alone is about 3 times than the male but the male population is increasing. Most of them are troubled with more than a disease and use aids and feel the necessity of the others' help. The ratio of the absolute poverty among the elderly living alone is about 30%. The majority of them are almost 65-84 years old with living detached house. Most of them own their house. They living in detached house are of a mind to remodel bath/toilet first of all and they living in apartment or row houses have a intention of remodeling an air conditioner and paper walls and ceiling and flooring of all things in house. As the bath and restroom have been pointed as a dangerous space for elderly, the elderly living alone pointed out them as to be remodeled. It seemed the air conditioner in house do not work well in view of their poor economic condition. For the elderly It is needed economic and institutional supports of private organization or government.

• Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.29-37
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• 2002

This study was designed to assess diet and health-related factors of older adults in Korea. Subjects females were 2,660 adults aged 50 and over living in Korea. Males were 847 persons and were 1813 persons. The mean weight and height for males and females were 63.8 $\pm$ 0.3kg / 164.0 $\pm$ 0.2cm and 57.0 $\pm$ 0.2kg /150.6 $\pm$ 0.1cm respectively. BMI (body mass index), body fat, and percent fat were significantly greater in females than in males. The muscle mass and body water were significantly greater in males than in females. Twenty-one percent of total subjects lived alone and 26% with spouse only. Most of the subject's self-reported income was in middle level (65%) or low level (24%). Proportion of subjects who answered 'very poor' or 'poor' on perceived health status was higher in older group. The 50-64 years old group was facing more stress than 65yr and over group. Among male subjects,38.4% were current-smokers and 22.0% were ex-smokers. But only 6.5% of female subjects were current-smokers. Males turned out to have better dietary habits-meal frequency per day, mealtime regularity, regular meal size and balanced eating-than females (p < 0.001). This study revealed that the diet and health-related factors affect nutritional status and chronic diseases of the elderly. For better management and evaluation of health status of the elderly, more effective nutritional assessment tools should be developed.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.59 no.1
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• pp.5-25
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• 2007

The purpose of this study is to explore factors influencing the poverty of the elderly in Korea. In spite the fact that poverty of the elderly is more serious than any other demographic group, this important issue is rarely studied. Using the 7-year accumulated data from the KLIPS(Korean Labor and Income Study), I combined the work history of the elders, their demographic characteristics and residence to estimate pooled data analysis of the elderly after reaching age 55 and who are also only living by themselves(only the elders). The results of this study are as followed: first of all, age, education, marital status, wealth, residence and work history are shown to be significant predictors for the poverty of elderly. Second, the results show that factors influencing the poverty is different depending on the elder's (demographic) characteristics. For example, age and marital status is a more important predictor in female than in male, and wealth and health status is a more important predictor in elders who do not have a spouse than in elders who do. Such results suggest that the policy of the poverty of the elderly which is only focused on elder's characteristic is limited. Therefore we can suggest that a policy which workable people can earn decent income and saving wealth for their elderly in job is needed. Especially, policies on the 'Working Poor' and reconstruct the current public pension system is very much needed.