PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to investigate the factors associated with social isolation in older adults using a senior welfare center. METHODS: This study was a cross-sectional survey. Data was collected from June to August 2006 using a questionnaire. A total of 248 older adults responded. RESULTS: About one third (34.9%) of participants responded they felt socially isolated. There were statistically significant differences in living, religion, family and belongingness social support, loneliness, depression, family function, perceived health status, and number of chronic illnesses between socially isolated and non isolated groups. However, factors influencing social isolation were family function (OR=0.954, CI=0.926-0.982), loneliness (OR=1.042, CI=1.002-1.083), depression (OR=1.041, CI=1.002-1.081), and number of chronic illness (OR=1.657, CI=1.153-2.382). CONCLUSION: We found that some older adults were feeling socially isolated even though the senior welfare center was a good place to meet people. The findings of this study indicated that older adults suffering from social isolation need special attention and may benefit from interventions which promote health and social interactions. Further studies are needed to develop and evaluate an intervention program for this population.
Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; Depression ; Family ; Female ; Health Status ; Humans ; Loneliness ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Predictive Value of Tests ; Questionnaires ; Social Isolation/*psychology ; Social Welfare ; Translating

OBJECTIVE: This study aims to investigate differences between the elderly living alone and those living with others in frustrated interpersonal needs and life satisfaction. Also, we explore the effects of frustrated interpersonal needs on life satisfaction in the elderly living alone. METHODS: The participants include 572 elderly people aged over 60 in Busan, Korea. Life satisfaction were evaluated by the Life Satisfaction Self-Rating Scale (LSRS) and frustrated interpersonal needs were measured by the Interpersonal Needs Questionnaire-Revised (INQ-R). RESULTS: The overall LSRS scores were significantly lower in the elderly living alone (106.2±20.1) than living with others (115.3±13.9, p<0.001). The total INQ-R score was significantly lower in the elderly living alone (73.8±12.1) than those living with others (76.9±12.0, p<0.05). As a result of multiple regression analysis, we came to know that frustrated interpersonal needs were factors affecting life satisfaction in living alone group. CONCLUSION: The results of present study suggest that the elderly living alone are more likely to have poor life satisfaction and frustrated interpersonal needs. Also, frustrated interpersonal needs are related to life satisfaction. Thus, it is necessary to establish the social support system such as social isolation prevention and interpersonal relationship development.
Aged ; Busan ; Humans ; Korea ; Social Isolation

Evoked Potentials ; Social Isolation ; Attention ; Humans

Currently, adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) is principally regarded as benign, but some researchers have cited serious or extreme effects, including severe pain, cardiopulmonary compromise, social isolation, and even early death. Therefore, exploration of the long-term effects of AIS, the most common type of idiopathic scoliosis, is warranted. The purpose of this review was to examine the long-term studies on the natural history of AIS and/or reviews concerning the long-term effects of untreated AIS. A PubMed search was conducted using the key words idiopathic scoliosis, long-term effects and idiopathic scoliosis, natural history. For further analysis, references cited in those studies were reviewed for additional, related evidence not retrieved in the initial PubMed search. A review of the pertinent bibliography showed that older natural history studies did not distinguish between late-onset scoliosis (referred to in this paper as AIS) and early-onset scoliosis (EOS). The more recent studies offer such important distinction and reach to the general conclusion that untreated AIS does not lead to severe consequences with respect to signs and symptoms of scoliosis. It is possible that earlier studies may have included patient populations with EOS, leading to the perception of untreated scoliosis as having an unusually high morbidity rate. Studies on the long-term effects of AIS that specifically excluded EOS patients conclude that AIS is a benign disorder. This indicates that for research and reporting purposes, it is important to distinguishing between AIS and EOS. This will allow the practitioner and patient and their families to decide on an optimal treatment plan based on the most appropriate prognosis.
Adolescent* ; Humans ; Natural History ; Prognosis ; Scoliosis* ; Social Isolation

Dementia caregivers suffer a considerable care burden. They are confronted with a high rate of economic burden, psychological morbidity, social isolation, physical ill-health and financial hardship. Although many researchers have tried to determine the influence of the stressors in dementia caregiving on caregivers, the results remain inconclusive. However, many kinds of psychosocial interventions have been demonstrated to reduce caregivers'psychological symptoms and delay nursing home admission. Caregiver characteristics rather than objective care needs tend to be responsible for a caregiver's psychological symptoms. Future research should focus on individualizing treatment approach and developing partnerships with health professionals as well as disseminating general information about dementia caregiving.
Aged ; Caregivers ; Dementia ; Health Occupations ; Humans ; Nursing Homes ; Social Isolation

It is hypothesized that a number of environmental factors affect animals' behavior. Without controlling these variables, it is very hard for researchers to get not only reliable, but replicable data from various behavioral experiments testing animals' cognitive as well as emotional functions. For example, laboratory mice which had restricted environment showed different synaptic potentiation properties with wild mice (Zhao MG et al., 2009). While performing behavioral experiments, however, it is sometimes inevitable that the researcher changes the animals' environments, as by switching the cages in which experimental animals are housed and separating animals raised together into small experimental groups. In this study, we investigated the effect of environmental changes on mice's emotional behaviors by socially isolating them or reducing the size of their cage. We found that social isolation selectively increases the animals' levels of anxiety, while leaving depression-like behaviors unchanged. On the other hand, alteration of the housing dimensions affected neither their anxiety levels nor their depression-like behaviors. These results suggest that environmental variables may have a prominent impact on experimental animals' emotional behaviors and possibly their psychological states, leading to bias in the behavioral data produced from experiments.
Animals ; Anxiety ; Bias (Epidemiology) ; Hand ; Housing ; Mice ; Social Isolation

INTRODUCTIONThere has been an explosive growth of Internet usage worldwide and this is expected to continue with its use becoming an integral part of everyday life. The Internet provides tremendous educational benefits; however, excessive Internet use can lead to negative outcomes such as poor school performance and social isolation.

MATERIALS AND METHODSThe survey consisted of a 69-item, anonymous, self-administered paper-and-pencil questionnaire. Data collected included demographic data, academic performance, social support and general wellbeing as well as questions pertaining to Internet use. For the purposes of our study, we defined Internet use of more than 5 hours a day as "excessive use".

RESULTSOf the 2735 adolescents who took part in the study, 1349 (49.3%) were male and 1383 (50.6%) were female. The mean age of the adolescents was 13.9 years [standard deviation (SD), 1.0]. A quarter of the adolescents surveyed (25%) reported that they did not access the Internet everyday, while 17.1% of adolescents reported using it for more than 5 hours every day. Excessive Internet use was associated with (i) no rules of Internet use at home (x2 = 313.1, P <0.001 ), (ii) less likelihood of having confidants (x2 = 15.8, P = 0.003), (iii) feelings of sadness or depression (x2 = 49.6, P <0.001) and (iv) perceived poorer grade/school work (x2 = 226.1, P <0.001).

CONCLUSIONSThe high figures of excessive Internet use (17.1%) reported in our study is not equivalent to Internet addiction as no diagnostic instruments were used. However, school counsellors and teachers need to be made aware of the prevalence of and problematic behaviours associated with excessive Internet use. Training and resources should also be made available to parents and caregivers so that they can play a greater role in setting boundaries and detecting early warning signs.

Adolescent ; Adolescent Behavior ; Behavior, Addictive ; Data Collection ; Female ; Humans ; Internet ; utilization ; Male ; Singapore ; Social Isolation

In the 21st century, the number of elderly population will reach 10% of Korean's total population, As the elderly population are increasing, the anticipation of the elderly with chronic health problem are also increased. They feel social isolation, alienation because of pain, and psychological flinching such as depression, but they can not control appropriately their chronic pain. Therefore, this study is an attempt to expose a group reminiscence therapy effect to decrease pain and depression, increasing self-esteem of the elderly as effective therapeutic nursing intervention This study is conductcd for 5 weeks from July 28 to August 31, 1997. The Subjects of this study consisted of 33 the elderly women having ronic pain. 17 of 33 residents S nursing home were ontrol group in C city. 16 of 33 resident E nursin home were experimental group in M city. The study design was a nnneqi.uivalent nontrol group with a pretest-posttest design. As for the tool for this study, Visual An logue Scale and Discriptive rating Scale were u ed to measure the pain, Zung's Depression Status nventory(DSI) which was translated by Yang S k Ha was used to measure the depression, and self-esteem scale which was translated by Byung Jae Jeon was used Lo measure self-esteem. As for the process of the study, demo raphic variables, pain, depression, self-esteem were tested with both the experimental and control grou prior to the group reminiscence. The ezperimental group was divided into 3 subgroup and a total of 4 ession of the group reminiscence therapy was performed to the experimental group for an hour at a time once a week from the first to the fourth week. Analysis of this study was computerized by using SPSS/PC. and the homogeneity which may be affected by various bariables was verifie with Chi-square and t-test, the reliablity of th tools with Cronbach's alpha, the comparison of pre and post-test with t-test in the Pain, Depression, and Self-Esteem among the experimental group and control group. The Pearson Corelation Coefficient was for analysis the relation of the Pain, Depression and Self-esteem. The results of the study can be summarized as follows ; 1. The first hypothesis, the degree of pain will be decreased on the experimental group which performed group reminiscence therapy than that of control group, was supported. VAS(t = -2.35, p=.025), DRS(t= -2.11, p=O.43). 2. The second hypothesis, the degree of depression status of the experimental group which has perfomed group reminiscence therapy will be reduced than control group was supported(t= -2.53, p= .017). 3. The third hypothesis, self-esteem of the experiinental group which has performed group reminiscence therapy will be increased than that of control group was not supported(t=1.34, p= .191). 4. The fourth hypothesis, the correlation with pain, depression, self-esteem was to appeared highly. The significance of this study through the above results shows that the Group Reminiscence Therapy is an effective nursing intervention for the elderly with chronic pain and depression.
Aged* ; Chronic Pain* ; Depression* ; Emigrants and Immigrants ; Female ; Humans ; Nursing ; Nursing Homes ; Social Isolation

Proximal junctional kyphosis (PJK) is a common radiographic finding after long spinal fusion. A number of studies on the causes, risk factors, prevention, and treatment of PJK have been conducted. However, no clear definition of PJK has been established. In this paper, we aimed to clarify the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of PJK by reviewing relevant papers that have been published to date. A literature search was conducted on PubMed using "proximal junctional", "proximal junctional kyphosis", and "proximal junctional failure" as search keywords. Only studies that were published in English were included in this study. The incidence of PJK ranges from 5% to 46%, and it has been reported that 66% of cases occur 3 months after surgery and approximately 80% occur within 18 months. A number of studies have reported that there is no significantly different clinical outcome between PJK patients and non-PJK patients. One study showed that PJK patients expressed more pain than non-PJK patients. However, recent studies focused on proximal junctional failure (PJF), which is accepted as a severe form of PJK. PJF showed significant adverse impact in clinical aspect such as pain, neurologic deficit, ambulatory difficulties, and social isolation. Numerous previous studies have identified various risk factors and reported on the treatment and prevention of PJK. Based on these studies, we determined the clinical significance and impact of PJK. In addition, it is important to find a strategic approach to the proper treatment of PJK.
Diagnosis* ; Epidemiology ; Humans ; Incidence ; Kyphosis* ; Neurologic Manifestations ; Risk Factors ; Social Isolation ; Spinal Fusion

The purpose of this study was to describe the relationship between family stress and adaptation in families with a disabled child through literature review using McCubbin's Double ABCX family crisis framework. The literature review focused on (1) family stress and factors affecting family stress, (2) the critical individual, familial and social resources which families acquire and employ over time in managing crisis situation, (3) the changes in definition and meaning families develop in an effort to make sense out of their predicament, (4) the coping strategies families employ, and (5) the range of outcomes of these family efforts The results showed that families reported financial difficulties and the burden of care-giving demands as major family stressors. Siblings of disabled children manifested depressive symptoms and social isolation, but was not consistent study results. The parents' views of the cause of the disabling condition fundamentally affected their behavior toward their disabled child. Especially, the fathers' views of the child's characteristics made the greatest contribution to positive changes in the mothers' perceptions. The term perceived social support refers to the cognitive appraisal by individuals that they are cared for and valued, that significant others are available to them if needed, and that they are satisfied with their interpersonal relationships. The perceived social support was more protective than social support source, network size and network density. Parental adaptation was found to be related to the child's communication competence rather than family coping strategies proposed by Lazarus and Folkman. One study results showed that there was no difference in depressive symptoms and physical health between mothers with a disabled child and those without all though mothers with a disabled child had negative attitudes and perceived themselves as having significantly less social support and lower family functioning. But a longitudinal study revealed decreases in the negative impact of the child and increases in sibling and overall family adaptation.
Child ; Depression ; Disabled Children* ; Humans ; Mental Competency ; Mothers ; Parents ; Siblings ; Social Isolation