농촌 독거노인공동거주 실태조사 연구 : 예천군의 사례를 중심으로

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to grasp the actual living conditions of the rural communal living system for elders who live alone through building surveys, participatory observation, and in-depth interviews, and evaluate the living conditions in terms of the concept of aging in place and the appropriateness as an environment for the elderly. The subjects of this study were 22 residents of four ‘communal living houses for elders who live alone’ in Yecheon-gun. According to the results of the study, the physical environments of the buildings were very poor when evaluated in terms of environments for the elderly, particularly safety supportiveness and accessibility were significantly poor among living performance evaluation criteria, but were excellent in terms of human relations due to aging in place. In order for the communal living system for elders who live alone to become an effective measure for solving the problem of residence of elders who live alone in rural areas, the advantage of utilizing the human infrastructure of the existing community at low social costs should be strengthened but efforts to improve the physical environments by applying the concept of environment design for the elderly are strongly required.