There is little information on the nutrient intake according to the city size and small town in Korean elderly. This study analyzed the nutritional consumption of older people in metropolitan, middle and small cities, and rural areas according to four income levels. The recent data from the 2016~2018 Korean National Health and Nutrition Survey, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were used. The final analysis included 4,325 individuals (Male: 1,856, Female: 2,469) over 65 years old. Multivariable regression with a complex sample design was conducted to compare the nutrient intake among the groups. In a comparison within regions, the nutrition status of the elderly in small towns was more vulnerable than metropolitan and middle & small cities. The energy intakes were similar between the groups. The carbohydrate intake of middle & small cities was significantly higher than the other regions. The intake of other nutrients in metropolitan and middle & small cities appeared to be higher than in rural areas. The number of nutrients with statistical significance between low and high-income levels were 19 in metropolitan, 11 in middle & small cities, and 5 in rural areas. Each contribution of carbohydrate, fat, and protein to the total energy intake was lower in the low-income level than the high-income level in metropolitan and middle & small cities. On the other hand, in rural areas, only the contribution of protein to energy intake was lower in the low-income level than the high-income level. Cities with higher levels of urbanization had more severe nutritional inequality in relation to the income level. There was also nutritional inequality present in rural areas but it was to a lesser extent. Moreover, the generally low level of nutrient intake was problematic in rural areas. These findings could be used as fundamental evidence for developing community nutritional policies for the elderly.

This study was carried out to analyze the relationship between body mass index (BMI) and general characteristics, psychological factors, eating habits, dietary behaviors, and health related quality of life using survey of 335 women aged 20 to 29 years in the Seoul and Kyungin areas. The 335 study subjects were divided into 4 groups by BMI (㎏/㎡) levels; normal group(18.5≤BMI≤22.9), overweight group(23.0≤BMI≤24.9), mild obesity group(25.0≤BMI≤29.9), and heavy obesity group (BMI≥30) by Asian-Pacific obesity index criteria. The family income of the heavy obesity group was significantly (p<0.05) less than that of the normal weight group. Psychological factors, such as stress and depression of the normal weight group tended to be higher than those of overweight and obesity groups. The higher BMI level had the lower self-efficacy(p<0.05) among all subjects. As the BMI level increased, the preference for sweet, salty, and hot taste was significantly high. We found that normal weight women had healthier eating habits and dietary behaviors and a higher level of health-related quality of life than did those who were overweight, mildly obese, and heavily obese women. Overweight and mildly and heavily obese women were strongly associated with decreased physical and mental health related quality of life. Therefore, weight loss is desirable, and is likely to be beneficial for health-related quality of life in obese adult women. In conclusion, this study contains evidence to suggest that obesity management programs including different strategies according to obesity are required to determine the types of programs that are suitable for adult women, prior to their initiation of a program. The findings are helpful to inform researchers and practitioners who are seeking to implement appropriate strategies to create positive changes in the health behaviors of obese adult women.

Vibrotactile actuators for small consumer electronic products, such as mobile devices, have been widely used for conveying haptic sensation to users. One of the most important things in vibrotactile actuators is to be developed in the form of thin actuator which can be easily embedded into mobile devices and to provide vibrotactile signals with wide frequency band to users. Thus, this paper proposes a thin film type haptic actuator with an aim to convey vibrotactile information with high frequency bandwidth to users in mobile devices. To this end, a vibrotactile actuator which creates haptic sensation is designed and constructed based on cellulose acetate material. A cellulose acetate material charged with an electric potential can generate vibration under the AC voltage input. It is found that the motion of the actuator can have concave or convex shape by controlling a polarity of both charged membranes and the actuator performance can be modulated by increasing level of biased electric potential. The experiment clearly shows that the proposed actuator creates enough output force to stimulate human skin with a large frequency bandwidth and to simulate various vibrotactile sensations to users.