PURPOSE: The purpose of the study was to analyze the effects of self-care behavior, empowerment, and social support on glycosylated hemoglobin in patients with type 2 diabetes. METHODS: The data were collected during the period of July 1 to July 31, 2016. In total, 172 participants were recruited from outpatients who had been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes at a health care center, a health promotion center at National Health Insurance Corporation, and a tertiary hospital. Statistical data were analyzed with SPSS 20.0 using frequency analysis, t-test, ANOVA, Scheffé test, Pearson's correlation coefficients, and hierarchical regression analysis. RESULTS: The study results showed that self-care behavior (β=−.34, p<.001), empowerment (β=−.34, p<.001), and social support (β=−.20, p=.018) were found to be influential factors affecting glycosylated hemoglobin, with an overall descriptive power of 69%. CONCLUSION: Self-care behavior, empowerment, and social support are considered to be important factors in blood glucose management for the patients with type 2 diabetes. Therefore, self-caring blood glucose programs and internal synchronizing education through social support and empowerment need to be improved.
Blood Glucose ; Delivery of Health Care ; Diabetes Mellitus ; Education ; Health Promotion ; Hemoglobin A ; Hemoglobin A, Glycosylated* ; Humans ; National Health Programs ; Outpatients ; Power (Psychology)* ; Self Care* ; Tertiary Care Centers

PURPOSE: This study aimed to verify the predictive validity of Comprehensive Korean Frailty Instrument (CKFI) among older adults. METHODS: A secondary analysis of data from a prospective cohort study was conducted. Frailty was determined in older adults (N=9,188) according to the data in 2008 and the effects of frailty on adverse outcomes (such as institutionalization and death) were evaluated according to the data in 2011. The Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS) index was used to compare with the predictive validity of CKFI. RESULTS: The prevalence of frailty was 26.3%. With the CKFI, the frail group had a higher risk of negative health outcomes compared to the robust and pre-frail groups after three years. The two of the highest risks identified using the CKFI and CHS index were institutionalization (5.522 times higher) and mortality (3.210 times higher). For both instruments, the survival analysis revealed that the risk of death increased as the degree of frailty increased. CONCLUSION: The CKFI consisting of self-report items and multidimensional aspects of frailty can be used as a simple instrument for assessing the frailty of older adults residing in a local community in Korea.
Adult ; Aged ; Cohort Studies ; Frail Elderly ; Humans ; Institutionalization ; Korea* ; Long Term Adverse Effects ; Mortality ; Prevalence ; Prospective Studies

PURPOSE: Art program has been found to enhance mood such as increasing motivation, self-expression and decreasing depression in older adults. This study was conducted to investigate the effects of clay art and drawing on depression and self-expression among elderly people at a long-term care center. METHODS: The research was a pre-test and post-test non-equivalent design. Sixty older patients (clay art program=28. Drawing art program=32) over the age of 65 were recruited from 2 long-term care hospitals to participate in the 5 weeks program. Each group was scheduled with 10,120-minute evaluation sessions, twice per week. Test measures were completed before and after the 5 week intervention period for all participants. The data was collected from April 27 to May 29, 2015. It was analyzed with SPSS 22.0 using chi-square, t-test and paired t-test. RESULTS: There were no significant difference in the levels of depression (t=0.21, p=.830) and total score of self-expression (t=-0.10, p=.919) between the two groups. However, the pre-post scores of self-expression in the clay art program (t=0.22, p=.826) were improved compared to the drawing art program (t=0.80, p=.430). CONCLUSION: Further studies are needed to evaluate the effectiveness of clay art program for extended senior care applications.
Adult ; Aged* ; Art Therapy ; Depression* ; Humans ; Long-Term Care* ; Motivation

PURPOSE: This study explores school nurses' emergency care experiences and their needs for systemic institutional support. METHODS: Data were collected in 2016 from the interviews with five focus groups comprising thirty school nurses. Qualitative content analysis was then performed using the collected data. RESULTS: The study found that school nurses were vulnerable to over-reaction in uncertain situations as the school's sole health service provider. The study's findings are divided into ten categories. 1) Major obstacles to overcome as the sole health service provider, 2) Assessing an uncertain situation and making appropriate decisions, 3) Providing limited first aid while maintaining control over the situation, 4) Referring or transferring a student to a hospital that creates tensions and raises cost, 5) Becoming an advocate for information disclosure and treatment, 6) Ensuring follow-up actions and proper transfer of responsibility, 7) Making preparations for future emergency, 8) Responding to conflicts arising from over-reaction as a safeguard and professional expertise, 9) Need for the development of standardized manual for school emergency care, 10) Need for practical case-based training. CONCLUSION: The findings of this study should contribute to the development of the programs aimed at improving school emergency care and the professional competence of school nurse.
Disclosure ; Emergencies* ; Emergency Medical Services* ; Emergency Nursing ; First Aid ; Focus Groups ; Follow-Up Studies ; Health Services ; Humans ; Professional Competence ; Qualitative Research ; School Health Services ; School Nursing

PURPOSE: Early sexual intercourse is associated with poor health outcomes in adolescents. It is known that sexual intercourse coincides with other health risk behaviors such as smoking, drinking, and using drugs. The purpose of this study is to identify the relationships between sexual intercourse and health risk behaviors among Korean and US adolescents using nationally representative data. METHODS: Data were collected from the 2011 Korea Youth Risk Behavior Web-based Survey (29,676 students) and 2011 Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (10,135 high school students). Logistic regression analysis was performed. RESULTS: In Korea, students who had sexual intercourse accounted for 7.0% in total. Among these, 9.7% were male and 4.2% were female students. In the US, a total of 51.3% students had sexual intercourse, and the proportion of the US male (49.3%) and female (53.4%) students who had sexual intercourse was similar. Korean and US students who experienced sexual intercourse were more likely to smoke, drink alcohol, and use drugs. CONCLUSION: Since the results of this study show the relationships between sexual intercourse and health risk behaviors, it is necessary to develop comprehensive sex education programs with effective strategies to reduce health risk behaviors in adolescents.
Adolescent* ; Coitus* ; Drinking ; Female ; Humans ; Korea ; Logistic Models ; Male ; Risk-Taking* ; Sex Education ; Sexual Behavior ; Smoke ; Smoking ; United States

PURPOSE: Smoking cessation interventions are important because university students are vulnerable to smoking and good health practices during their university lives greatly affects their health status. The purpose of this study is to investigate the factors affecting smoking cessation success among the university students who participated in the 4-week smoking cessation program. METHODS: This study was conducted with 101 university student smokers. To identify the factors affecting the success of smoking cessation, a logistic regression analysis was performed. RESULTS: In Model 1, without the smoking cessation aids variable, when the frequency of face-to-face counseling was greater, the success rate of smoking cessation was 1.70 times higher. In Model 2, including the smoking cessation aids variable, when the nicotine dependence score was higher, the success rate of smoking cessation was 0.72 times lower, and when the number of smoking cessation aids used was greater, the success rate of smoking cessation was 1.40 times higher. CONCLUSION: Smoking cessation aids are essential to increase the success of short-term smoking cessation, and face-to-face counseling and telephone counseling should be provided continuously to maintain long-term smoking cessation.
Counseling ; Humans ; Logistic Models ; Smoke* ; Smoking Cessation* ; Smoking* ; Telephone ; Tobacco Use Disorder

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study is to investigate the level of pain, gait speed, and ROM (Range of motion) in community-dwelling older adults with knee joint pain. METHODS: A convenience sample of 160 participants living in G city were recruited. Elderly people who suffer from knee joint pain with a pain level ≥5 during the last one year on a visual analogue scale were included in the study. The data were collected from June to August 2016. All statistical analyses were performed using IBM SPSS ver. 22.0. RESULTS: Participants' pain was 6.81 by VAS. The mean gait speed was 13.9 sec/10m. The ROM of left knee and right knee were 54.06° and 56.50°, respectively. The level of pain was different according to gender (t=-4.87, p<.001), economic status (t=3.51, p=.032), diseases (t=5.23, p<.001), diagnosis of arthritis (t=3.86, p<.001), region of knee joint pain (F=9.30, p<.001), duration of pain occurrence (F=13.82, p<.001), and limp (F=3.58, p<.001). The level of knee joint pain and gait speed had significant correlations. CONCLUSION: The gait speed in older adults is an important variable that should be taken into account in the assessment of their level of knee joint pain.
Adult* ; Aged ; Arthritis ; Diagnosis ; Gait* ; Humans ; Knee Joint* ; Knee* ; Range of Motion, Articular

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to identify community health nursing activities that community health practitioners perceive and their achievements in community by reviewing the community health nursing activities that community health practitioners have done for the last 30 years. METHODS: This study was a qualitative study. Thirty one community health practitioners were interviewed using the focus group interview method and data were analyzed using content analysis. Data were collected from April to June in 2011. RESULTS: Community health practitioners perceived themselves as "Community Vitalizers" and 9 categories were identified. They were 'ground to explore new nursing areas', 'assimilation to community', 'ground to establish community diagnosis', 'everyday life health management in the community', 'increased accessibility to medical services for the residents', 'enforced health practices for the residents', 'reinforced self-reliance of community', 'commitment to making a happy village' and 'mental fence of the community.' CONCLUSION: This study was meaningful in that it explained the unique identity of the community health practitionersand could be used as important basic materials in the process of re-establishment of the roles of Health Offices. Hereafter in-depth study on community competence reinforcement should be made to identify the roles of community health nurses.
Achievement ; Community Health Nursing ; Focus Groups ; Korea ; Mental Competency ; Nurse's Role ; Primary Health Care ; Reinforcement (Psychology) ; Rural Health

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to compare the factors of health-related quality of life in older adults according to the type of residency. METHODS: A cross-sectional comparative study was conducted. The subjects were 114 institutionalized older adults and 99 community dwelling older adults. Data were collected through face-to-face interviews by nurses using structured questionnaires composed of SF-36 (ver.2) and CGA-SF. RESULTS: The institutionalized older adults had more health problems and experienced lower quality of life compared to community dwelling older adults. Factors influencing health-related quality of life for institutionalized older adults were social support, educational level, and ADL, which explained about 25.7% of the total variance, while thoseof community dwelling older adults were IADL, experiencing fall, and weight loss, which had explanatory power of 31.8%. CONCLUSION: These results indicate that differentiated nursing strategies according to the type of residency are required to promote health-related quality of life for older adults.
Activities of Daily Living ; Adult ; Aged ; Humans ; Internship and Residency ; Quality of Life ; Residence Characteristics ; Weight Loss ; Surveys and Questionnaires

PURPOSE: The purpose of this paper was to compare community health status by region and to investigate related factors using community health and social indicators. METHODS: Data were collected from statistics of local districts that were provided by KNSO and KCDC. ANOVA and correlation were analyzed using PASW 18.0. RESULTS: The standardized cancer mortality rate was higher in metropolitan areas than in other areas. On the contrary, the mortality of respiratory disease, traffic accident, and suicide were higher in rural areas. Small cities and county districts showed higher prevalence in obesity prevalence than metropolitan areas. Metropolitan areas presented higher prevalence in alcohol drinking during the previous month, perceived stress, and seat belt use. The age-adjusted standardized mortality rate was correlated with higher prevalence of smoking, obesity, percentage of the elderly, number of beds, number of social welfare facilities, number of registered cars, lower percentage of financial independence, number of doctors, and percentage of water supply service & sewage. CONCLUSION: Since significant differences in mortality rate and prevalence of health risk behaviors exist between regional areas and the mortality rate was correlated with other social indicators and health indicators, health policies and social policies considering these differences should be develop and implemented to the communities.
Accidents, Traffic ; Aged ; Alcohol Drinking ; Health Policy ; Health Status Indicators ; Humans ; Obesity ; Prevalence ; Public Policy ; Risk-Taking ; Seat Belts ; Smoke ; Smoking ; Social Welfare ; Suicide ; Water Supply