Background: South Korea is one of fastest aging countries in the world. Poor balance and falls of the elderly are main health issues. Objects: The goal of this study was to understand the association between the socioeconomical factors and the standing balance of elderly living in the rural and urban area. Methods: One hundred sixty-six elderly participants who were older than 65 and were able to walk without an assistive device were recruited in the city of Gwangju and in the rural area of Jeonnam, South Korea. All participants performed the static and dynamic standing balance tests. Static standing balance was measured with chronometer in seconds while standing on one leg. Dynamic balance was tested with the timed up and go test (TUG), measured in seconds while getting up from a chair and walking 3 meters and back to sit. The static and dynamic standing balance was analyzed using analysis of variance and the Fisher’s Least Significant Difference post hoc test. Results: Male participants from both areas had no difference in one leg standing and TUG. The female elderly living in rural area took shorter in TUG than females living in urban area. Age decreased the one leg standing time in both areas while did not affect the TUG significantly. As the monthly income increased, both of one leg standing and TUG increased in urban area, while the medium monthly income showed best performance (it was not statistically significant) in both of one leg standing and TUG in rural area. Conclusion: Socioeconomical factors affects differently the standing balance of the elderly living in rural and urban South Korea. Female living alone in urban area with low monthly income demonstrated worst standing balance in this study.

Level of urbanization in China has reached 53.73% in 2013, indicating a tremendous progress on the urbanization of China. On the other hand, the number of villages in China reduces by around one million from 3.6 million in 2000 to 2.7 million in 2010 (Zhang, 2014). Issues in both urban and rural areas of China appear, including the imbalance between increased population and limited resources in urban region, and more significantly, the increasing disparity between rural and urban areas. Chinese researchers interpret and analyse these matters from different perspectives. For instance, Zheng (2006) and Ma (2006) suggest the importance of the infrastructure construction and public service. Wu (2006) advises that the government should pay attention to the development of the secondary and tertiary industry. Wen (2005) proposes that the improvement of social institution and the recovery of social cultural environment are required to achieve sustainability in the urbanization process in China. Previous studies in environmental psychology put quality of life, attachment to place, and residence satisfaction at the center to understand the relationship between inhabitants and their neighborhood of residence. However, there are gaps in this research realm in both practice and theories. Firstly, very limited research studies this environmental psychology issue in China (e.g. Mao, Fornara, Manca, Bonnes, & Bonaiuto, 2015). Secondly, there are different opinions on the causal order between quality, attachment, and satisfaction. Research on the relationship between perceived residential environment quality (PREQ), place attachment, and environmental satisfaction has not reached a consensus. The debate on the direction of the causal relationship between perceived quality and satisfaction has been summarized by Bradya and Robertson (2001). They conclude that the quality to satisfaction causal order holds up well across diverse cultures. However, relevant debate is still ongoing. A number of research articles place satisfaction as an antecedent to attachment, e.g. Chen, Dwyer, and Firth (2014); Lee, Kyle, and Scott (2012); Ramkissoon and Mavondo (2015); etc. Some argue that place attachment is an indicator of satisfaction. Kyle et al. (2004) investigate the effect of place attachment on the perceived values of tourists and find that place attachment is an important factor explaining the variance of perceived values. This is supported by research e.g. Hwang, Lee, and Chen (2005); Prayag and Ryan (2012); Yuksel, Yuksel, Biljm (2010); etc. As to the relationship between perceived quality and attachment, the debate has not stopped. Through comparisons, Mesch and Manor (1996) conclude that the residents who give a higher evaluation of the social and natural environment may have greater place attachment. Brown, Perkins, and Brown (2003) also suggest that the residents who agree that the street environment is better would attach to this place. Sam, Bayram, and Bilgel (2012) have certified the relationship between residential environment quality and place attachment. Furthermore, Borrie and Roggenbuck (2001) and Walker and Ryan (2008) find that the connection between human beings and the nature environment would affect their affection toward the environment. It means that the closer the relationship with the nature environment is, the stronger the attachment would be, which in turn, enhances the intentions to protect the environment. This quality to satisfaction relationship is supported by other research such as Bonaiuto, Aiello, Perugini, Bonnes, and Ercolani (1999); Grisaffe and Nguyen (2011); Yu, Chen, and Chen (2015); etc. Nevertheless, a different opinion arguing that attachment to a place may affect one’s perception on the quality related to a place is emerging in tourism research (e.g. Neuvonen, Pouta, & Sievänen, 2010). This paper takes the credit of quality → attachment → satisfaction causal order as the initial model and proposes three hypotheses as follows. H1a: One’s PREQ has a positive impact on his/her attachment to this place; H2a: One’s attachment to a place has a positive impact on his/her satisfaction to the environmental settings in this place; H3a: Place attachment in addition performs as a mediating role between PREQ and environment satisfaction.To be noted, the initial model has its theoretical basis as discussed above but is not necessarily the absolute optimal model. Relatively, this model provides more theoretical interpretation and practical implications in the specific research context: residential psychology in urban and rural areas of China. On this basis, this article further examines a competing model illustrating an alternative theoretical framework on the relationships between these three constructs (satisfaction → attachment → quality). Relatively, another group of hypotheses in this competing model is listed as follows. H1b: One’s attachment to a place has a positive impact on his/her PREQ; H2b: One’s satisfaction to the environmental settings in this place has a positive impact on his/her attachment to this place; H3b: Place attachment in addition performs as a mediating role between environment satisfaction and PREQ. A survey approach is employed and data are collected from several backgrounds. Dataset A (rural) is collected from three villages from Heilongjiang Province and two villages from Shandong Province in China from July to August 2014. The choices of the provinces, rural areas, and the sampling process are random. 490 valid questionnaires are included in the data analysis. Dataset B (urban) is collected via an online survey portal, which allows a nationwide sampling reach. In total 1368 online survey entries are recorded and 420 valid questionnaires are included, resulting in a valid rate of 30.7%. The measures for each construct are based on an extensive literature review. The measurement of perceived residential environment quality is from Sam, Bayram, & Bilgel’s (2012) development on the perception of residential environment. The measurement of place attachment in this study is adopted from Kyle, Graefe, and Manning’s (2005) and Chen, Dwyer, and Firth’s (2014) evaluation based place attachment dimensionality and scales. As for the scale of environmental satisfaction, Pelletier, Legault, and Tuson’s (1996) measure was applied. All the entire variables adopted multiple-item, 5-point Likert scales were adopted, where “1” indicated “strongly disagree” and “5” indicated “strongly agree”. After pre-testing the preliminary version of the survey instrument, a revised version was developed. This study adopts structural equation modeling (SEM) based on partial least squares (PLS) modeling given the small sample size and the explorative purpose of this study (Dijkstra & Henseler, 2015a). The software used was Smart PLS 3.0. The reliability and validity of the constructs were assessed. Cronbach’s alpha and the value of CR of each construct were found to exceed the cut-off value of 0.70 (Fornell & Larcker, 1981), except for adequacy of education which is close to 0.70 (only for Cronbach’s alpha but not for CR). Furthermore, the AVE of each construct exceeded the variance attributable to its measurement error cut-off value of 0.50 (Chin, 1998; Fornell & Larcker, 1981). In addition, heterotrait-monotrait ratio (HTMT) is recommended as a better method to test discriminant validity (Henseler, Dijkstra, Sarstedt, Ringle, Diamantopoulos, Straub, Ketchen, Hair, Hult, & Calantone, 2014). The result shows that there is neither value of the HTMT higher than the threshold of 0.85 nor confidence interval containing the value one, indicating that all the constructs exhibit satisfactory discriminant validity. The hypothesized effects in the theoretical model were tested by structural equation modeling (SEM). The first group of models tested the effect of perceived environmental quality on environmental satisfaction through place attachment i.e. initial model (Model A, Model B, Model C), while the second group of models tested the reverse effect of environmental satisfaction on perceived environmental quality through place attachment (Model D, Model E, Model F). Both the full model and the multi-group model were tested. The value of SRMR of the full model that tests either the effect of perceived environmental quality on environmental satisfaction (SRMR = 0.104, t = 41.826, p < 0.001) or the reversed effect (SRMR = 0.106, t = 37.736, p < 0.001) shows that the models fit the data quite well (Dijkstra & Henseler, 2015b). However, the former is little bit more significant. In this study, PREQI is found different impacts on place attachment and environmental satisfaction. This provides evidence to support a similar mechanism of studying residents’ psychology with SERVEQUAL model. However, the model testing is found significantly different between rural and urban samples, indicating a systematic difference in the psychology of rural and urban populations. Quality  attachment  satisfaction causal order is found significant and supported by both samples in this study. However, a reversed causal order model (satisfaction  attachment  quality) is also supported by the samples. Although the results may not be able to end the debate on alternative models between PREQ, place attachment, and environmental satisfaction, this paper provides empirical evidence from a specific context (urban and rural China) for further research. Specifically, PREQ has a significant impact on place attachment in both urban and rural areas in China. As for the impact of place attachment on environmental satisfaction as well as the indirect impact of PREQ on environmental satisfaction, the influence is more significant in cities of China compared to rural areas. This suggests in the urban areas in China, affective and emotional responses to their lives play an important role to residents. Local government in cities should balance between improving and maintaining quality of the environment and strengthening local residents’ psychological attachment to the place. Governments in rural areas, on the other hand, should lay great focus on the physical aspects of the environment including nature, health, education, commerce, and venture of the rural areas, to enhance residents’ living experience and satisfaction. Further, there are some limitations. Although this study attempts to clarify the framework of “perception-affection-attitude” in the field of environment management, considering the practical implications, the future study could bring the individuals’ behaviors or intentions into this model such as willingness-to-pay for environment-friendly products. It will also benefit from reviewing more literature on community-based social marketing.

Objective : The purpose of this study was to compare the participation and influencing factors between rural and urban elderly and to identify their affecting factors.Methods : Data were collected from 77 rural and urban elderly. The instruments used in this study were Korean version of Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE-K), Outpatient Physical Therapy Improvement in Movement Log (OPTIMAL), Korean form of Geriatric Depression Scale (KGDS), Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES) and Utrecht Scale for Evaluation of Rehabilitation-Participation (USER-Participation). Data were analyzed using a chi-Square test, t-test, Pearson’s correlation and multiple regression.Results : All four functions had a statistically significant correlation with their participation. There were significant differences in factors relating to participation between the rural and urban elderly. A high level of negative correlation was found between participation and depression in rural elderly (r=-.486, p<.01), and a high level of positive correlation was found between participation and self-esteem in urban elderly (r=.598, p<.05). The main affecting factor was self-esteem in the urban elderly (p<.01).Conclusion : There were differences in the participation and influencing factors between rural and urban elderly, and the rural elderly were found to have more weaknesses than those from an urban area. An intervention program for participation should be designed differently between those from rural and urban areas.

This study was carried out survey to compare using status of physical therapy for elderly persons between urban and rural area in Honam. There were 16 places consisting of general clinics, departments of family medicine, pain medicine, and orthopedics that run outpatient physical therapy. This study distributed 636 questionnaires in total and collected 400 responses. Regionally, 200 responses out of 311 questionnaires from Gwangju and 200 responses out of 325 questionnaires from Jeollanam-do and Jeollabuk-do were collected. Regionally speaking, Gwangju was 62% while Jeollanam-do and Jeollabuk-do regions were 88%, indicating patients in rural areas employed more public transportation, which was statistically significantly different. There was a difference between urban and rural areas with regard to questions regarding improvement with physical therapy. Factors related to the number of physical therapy visits per week that showed a significant difference between urban and rural areas found by the linear regression analysis result were working hours, whether the patient exercised or not, and pain stress. This result suggest that it is necessary to reduce working hours and pain stress experienced by rural elderlies as well as to encourage regular exercise via national polices.

목적 : 도시와 농촌 간 만성질환이 있는 65세 이상의 노인을 대상으로 일반적 특성에 따른 신체활동 실천율과 신체활동에 따른 삶의 질 차이를 알아보고자 한다. 연구방법 : 만성질환을 갖고 있는 65세 이상 노인 1,039명을 연구 대상으로 하였다. 신체활동으로는 걷기, 유연성 운동,근력 운동을 조사하였고, 삶의 질은 EQ-5D (Euroqol-5 dimension)를 사용하여 삶의 질에 대한 자료를 수집하여 분석하였다. 결과 : 신체활동 실천율은 도시의 경우 연령, 성별, 배우자, 주택유형, 소득수준, 교육수준에 따라 유의한 차이를 보였고, 농촌의 경우 주택유형과 교육수준에 따라 유의한 차이를 보였다. 삶의 질에서, 도시의 경우는 걷기, 유연성 운동, 근력 운동을 실천 한 군의 운동능력, 자기관리, 일상생활활동, 통증/불편 영역에서 유의한 차이를 보였고, 농촌의 경우는 걷기를 실천 한 군의 운동능력에서 유의한 차이를 보였다. 결론 : 도시와 농촌 모두 만성질환 노인의 신체활동 실천율은 낮은 편이었고, 특히 도시보다 농촌에 거주하는 만성질환 노인의 신체활동 실천율이 더욱 낮게 나타났다. 만성질환노인의 신체적 기능을 높이고, 삶의 질에 긍정적인 영향을 미칠 수 있는 신체활동의 중요성에 대한 인식이 필요하다.

This study was performed to compare the dietary intake and food sources of zinc (Zn), using a database of Zn composition developed in this study, between elementary schoolchildren in a remote rural area (RA, n=58, 9.9±1.7 yrs) and those in an urban area (UA, n=60, 9.4±1.8 yrs) in Chungnam province in Korea. A dietary survey for three days by food record method was performed. All kinds of foods (n=273) consumed by subjects were collected by aliquot sampling method, and the Zn content of these foods were analyzed by wet technique. The results showed that the daily mean intakes of energy, calcium, iron, and vitamin C from diet in the RA were in the range of 49-88% of the Korean DRI (KDRI), while those in the UA were similar to or greater than the KDRI, except for calcium and iron. The daily mean intake of Zn from the RA diet was 7.0±0.5 mg/d (114.1±8.4% of the KDRI), and 16.0±1.0 mg/d (258.3±16.3% of the KDRI) in that of the UA (p〈0.001). The percentage of dietary intake of Zn less than 2/3 of the KDRI was 19.0% in the RA, in comparison to 1.7% in the UA. Those in the RA consumed Zn from plant foods more often than did those in the UA (p〈0.001). Beef rib stew was the food source with highest Zn amount for the total subjects, followed by beef rib meat, roasted; and beef soup w/seasoned red pepper sauce. These results showed that some children in the RA had poor Zn nutrition based upon low intakes and poor food sources of Zn, while overall, children in the UA had good Zn nutrition. Therefore, those in RAs should have their Zn nutrition improved through government policy and nutrition education.

The study examines the impact of international integration on Vietnam's rural and urban income inequalities using the regression model. The data used for this study is based on the results of the Vietnam Household Living Standards survey from 2008 to 2016 of the General Statistics Office. These surveys conducted nationwide with a sample size of 46,995 households in 3,133 communes/wards which were representative at national, regional, urban, rural and provincial levels. The level of international economic integration used in the study is the proportion of import and export turnover of GDP, the proportion of FDI and GDP by province. Due to the heterogeneity and unobservableness of the single observant in the data set, we selected the models of random and fixed effects. The research results show that during the economic integration process, the Export/GDP factor is negatively related to income inequality. The remaining factors (GDP per capita, FDI/GDP, Educational level of households, Percentage of internet users, Aggregation of foreign cash inflow and GDP of the province) are all positively related to income inequality. The findings help assess the impact of international integration on rural-urban income inequality, but also provides a concrete basis to help policymakers address income inequality in the integration process.

The interest and participation of the rural experience is increasing as an alternative for the problems such as the decrease of the agricultural income facing the agriculture and the rural area, the decrease of the population, and the regional stagnation. The rural experience has recently been transformed into a software dimension such as programs and participation activities in the past. In addition, public awareness also positively evaluates agriculture and rural communities as the basis for supporting society and recognition of multiple functions. Furthermore, the intention of the citizen to the earnest village is increasing. The purpose of this study is to analyze the effect of rural experience and customer satisfaction of urban residents on the recognition of return to farm and rural areas. As a result of the analysis, it was found that the characteristics of rural experience had a positive effect on the farming villages by the program, the experience field and the host, and the customer satisfaction had a positive effect on the farming villages. Therefore, it is considered that a systematic approach to the rural experience is needed in the future because the experience of the rural people in the city has a positive effect on the earliest villages.

Stability of labor market in rural areas was analyzed in this paper with categories of industrial group, employment scale, surviving period, and founder group. The stability of each classified labor market was compared with each other to figure out the stable business class and the unstable class in rural areas. The results of rural areas were compared with those of urban areas. The stability was analyzed with average and coefficient of variation (C.V.) of annual total employees’ change rates. It was revealed that labor market of ‘primary industry’, including agriculture, is unstable. Especially, labor market of ‘mid-size’ and ‘primary industry’ businesses founded as ‘incorporated company’ in rural areas is vulnerable. While labor market of ‘large-size’ is proved to be unstable, it is confirmed that ‘small-size’ or ‘mid-size’, and ‘over-ten-year survived’ businesses have positive contribution to the stable labor market in rural and urban areas. The results show that the stability of labor market is different in each category of business and in each region of rural or urban area. It is expected that the results can be utilized for the regional development policies, of labor and industry part.

On the purpose to analyze the survival rate of startup companies since their establishment, the companies’ survival rate was investigated by surviving period. The average and coefficient of variation(C.V.) of the startup companies’ survival rate were examined with the comparison of urban and rural areas, and primary, secondary, and tertiary industries. In this study, the variation of total numbers of new-established companies, from 1998 to 2012, were analyzed with micro-data of the Statistics Korea, ‘The Census on Establishments’. The results show that the survival rate of primary industry companies largely fluctuate and don’t be stabled during the whole surviving periods, whereas secondary and tertiary industry companies show stabilized survival rate after fifth year from their establishment. Especially, the startup companies of primary industry located at urban areas show the largest fluctuation and the most vulnerable stability of survival rate. It is concluded that the surviving period of primary industry companies don’t guarantee their survival, while survival rate of secondary and tertiary industry company became stable after five years from their establishment.