OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is to assess the efficacy of cognitive health promotion workbook for community-dwelling elderlies with mild cognitive impairment and dementia performed by trained dementia partners. METHODS: The trained dementia partners performed cognitive training program with the workbook developed by Incheon Metropolitan Dementia Center to 36 participants with mild cognitive impairment or dementia at their home. The cognitive training program consisted of 60-minute sessions held twice weekly for 10 weeks. We evaluated their cognitive performances at baseline and after intervention. Pre- and post-intervention measures included Korean version of Mini-Mental Status Examination for Dementia Screening (MMSE-DS), Global Deterioration Scale, Korea Activities of Daily Living Scale, Korea Instrumental Activities of Daily Living Scale, Korean Version of Short Form Geriatric Depression Scale (SGDS-K) and Korean Quality of Life-Alzheimer's Disease (KQoL-AD). RESULTS: Participants showed significant improvements compared with their baseline in MMSE-DS (p=0.002), SGDS-K (p=0.001) and KQoL-AD (p<0.001). There were no significant differences of improvement between high cognitive function group (MMSE ≤20, n=16) and low cognitive function group (MMSE ≤20, n=20). CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that the cognitive training program with cognitive health promotion workbook can improve cognitive function, quality of life and depression for community-dwelling elderlies with mild cognitive impairment and dementia and it would be efficient that trained dementia partners perform the cognitive training program regularly at their home.
Activities of Daily Living ; Cognition ; Dementia ; Depression ; Education ; Health Promotion ; Incheon ; Korea ; Mass Screening ; Mild Cognitive Impairment ; Quality of Life

OBJECTIVE: The provision of care for elderly people with dementia by healthy elderly caregivers is one of the new health-care paradigms in South Korea. The aim of this study was to determine whether this type of care, which includes cognitive stimulation, would improve the cognitive function of dementia patients and the quality of life of the healthy elderly caregiver. METHODS: Totals of 132 dementia patients and 197 healthy elderly caregivers participated in this study. We evaluated the cognitive function of the dementia patients at baseline and after providing the program for 6 months using the Korean version of the Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer's disease, 1st Edition (CERAD-K). We also evaluated the quality of life of the healthy elderly caregivers using the World Health Organization Quality of Life-Short Version (WHOQOL-BREF) at baseline and after 6 months. RESULTS: The word-list memory results of CERAD-K for the included dementia patients improved after 6 months (Z=-2.855, p=0.004). The WHOQOL-BREF score among the elderly caregiver also improved significantly (Z=-2.354, p=0.019). CONCLUSION: These data suggest that dementia care is associated with improvements in both the cognitive function of dementia patients and the quality of life of the healthy elderly caregivers.
Aged* ; Alzheimer Disease ; Caregivers* ; Cognition ; Dementia* ; Humans ; Korea ; Memory* ; Quality of Life* ; World Health Organization

OBJECTIVES: The present study explored the reliability and the validity of our newly constructed job stress scale, the Korean version of the Occupational Stress Inventory (K-OSI) METHODS: Through preliminary item-analysis, we constructed 140 items of the Korean version of Occupational Stress Inventory (K-OSI) K-OSI consists of three subscales measuring three sections, 'ORQ'(Occupational Role Questionnaire) 'PSQ'(Personal Strain Questionnaire) and 'PRQ'(Personal Resource Questionnaire) respectively. The normative group consisted of 805 adult workers who represented six major job classes in Korea. RESULTS: The internal consistency coefficients of 'ORQ', 'PSQ', and 'PRQ' ranged from .89 to .92, and of those 14 subscales ranged from .70 to .88. The test-retest reliability coefficients of 8 week duration ranged from .62 to . 79, and bilingual's consistency coefficient ranged from .82 to . 96. The validity of the K-OSI was investigated by factor-analysis, yielding 3 factors of overall job stress and its responses, personal stress coping, psychological, physical, and behavioral responses of job stress. CONCLUSION: The present results indicate that the K-OSI is a reliable and valid measure of job stress.
Adult ; Humans ; Korea ; Reproducibility of Results*

OBJECTIVES: This study examined the effects of demographic variables on the job stress experience and established the norms of the Korean version of Occupational Stress Inventory. METHODS: The normative group consisted of 805 adult workers who represent seven major job class in Korea. K-OSI were administered to normative group and data were analyzed by subjects' demographic variables. RESULTS: To explore the effects of demographic variables on K-OSI, we considered several factors such as age, sex, duration of employment, job class, job position and so on. The results were as follows: 1) We found significant sex difference in K-OSI. Compared with men, women showed higher scores in Role Insufficiency, Role Ambiguity, Social Support, Vocational Strain Scales and men showed higher scores in Role Overload, Responsibility Scales. 2) Generally, a person who was older, earned higher salary, more duration of employment experienced job stress and had more coping resources. 3) In general, white-collar workers, job classes and job position had little effects on job stress. But other workers such as security guards, military officers were different from general white-collar workers in K-OSI. CONCLUSION: Because men and women showed significant difference in K-OSI, we constructed norms according to sex. K-OSI would be an useful instrument to identify one's job stress experience and to develop intervention plan.
Adult ; Employment ; Female ; Humans ; Korea ; Male ; Military Personnel ; Salaries and Fringe Benefits ; Sex Characteristics ; Weights and Measures

OBJECTIVE: We studied the effect of Hyu-Sig-Gong-Gan and Hye-Ah-Rim on several evaluations and compared the two programs. We then investigated factors associated with the difference between pre- and post-ratings. METHODS: Thirty-six patients were randomized to Hyu-Sig-Gong-Gan (n=23) or Hye-Ah-Rim (n=13). We tested for the effect of each program on several evaluations and compared the two programs through Zarit Burden Interview (ZBI), Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression Scale, Dementia Attitude Scale (DAS)-intelligence, DAS-comfort and DAS-total. We then investigated whether the difference between pre- and post-rating depends on other factors. RESULTS: We observed significant positive effect of Hyu-Sig-Gong-Gan on DAS-comfort (t=1.843, p=0.039) and significant positive effect of Hye-Ah-Rim on ZBI (t=-2.327, p=0.019), DAS-comfort (t=2.241, p=0.022), and EuroQol-5 Dimensions-Visual Analogue Scale (t=2.537, p=0.013). For comparing the two programs, we found a lack of evidence for the difference in any of the five commonly observed evaluations. In the secondary analysis, we observed a strong trend that the two programs were particularly effective for caregivers with negative pre-ratings. CONCLUSION: The two programs showed positive effects on the various evaluations, but some evaluations could not reach statistical significance. The programs appear to be particularly helpful for those who are in need before the program participation.
Aged* ; Caregivers* ; Dementia* ; Humans ; Program Evaluation