BACKGROUND: Although adults in 30s and 40s are at risk for hypertension management due to low rates of awareness, treatment, and control of hypertension, there has been a lack of study on hypertension management for this population. Thus, the purpose of this study is to examine blood pressure screening and other associated factors with hypertension management in terms of awareness, control, and treatment. METHODS: Secondary data analysis was performed on the data from the Fourth Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey in 2007-2009. To examine whether blood pressure screening affects hypertension management in 929 subjects aged 30s and 40s with hypertension. Other factors, such as socio-demographics, health status, and health behaviors, were also included for data analysis. Chi-square test and multiple logistic regression analysis were carried out using SAS 9.1. RESULTS: Hypertension awareness rates were high in those who had diabetes mellitus (odds ratio [OR] 2.23; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.27-3.90), self-rated their health status as poor (OR 2.89; 95% CI 1.82-4.58), and received a blood pressure check up (OR 5.96; 95% CI 2.90-12.25). Hypertension treatment rates were high in women (OR 2.50; 95% CI 1.47-4.27), and high in those who had diabetes mellitus (OR 2.59; 95% CI 1.49-4.47), self-rated their health status as poor (OR 2.53; 95% CI 1.54-4.14), self-reported as past smoker (OR 2.01; 95% CI 1.22-3.29), and received a blood pressure check up (OR 12.64; 95% CI 4.87-32.77). Hypertension control rates were high in women (OR 2.47; 95% CI 1.29-4.72), and high in those who self-reported as past smoker (OR 2.46; 95% CI 1.35-4.50), and received a blood pressure check up (OR 9.24; 95% CI 3.15-27.15). CONCLUSIONS: For effective hypertension management in 30s and 40s, we should encourage this population to have a regular blood pressure screening.
Adult ; Aged ; Blood Pressure ; Diabetes Mellitus ; Female ; Health Behavior ; Humans ; Hypertension ; Korea ; Logistic Models ; Mass Screening ; Nutrition Surveys ; Phenothiazines ; Statistics as Topic

No abstract available.

No abstract available.
Informatics

No abstract available.
Spatial Analysis

PURPOSE: This study aimed to examine the relationships between the N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) levels with the sociodemographic and clinical factors, self-care behaviors, and the physical symptom experiences in patients with heart failure. METHODS: This cross-sectional study utilized a convenience sample of adult outpatients and inpatients who attended a cardiology department in a tertiary hospital in Seoul, Korea. The data from 154 patients with heart failure were collected using a questionnaire, and their clinical data were extracted from their electronic medical records. RESULTS: Compared with the patients with high NT-proBNP levels, those with low NT-proBNP levels had significantly lower physical symptom experiences scores. Patients with low- and mid-NT-proBNP levels were more likely to be employed compared with those with high NT-proBNP levels. Patients with low NT-proBNP levels had higher left ventricular ejection fractions, and were less likely to have arrhythmias and comorbidities. CONCLUSION: The results from this study showed that patients with more severe heart failure had higher physical symptom experiences scores; hence, individualizing treatment approaches based on heart failure severity is necessary.
Adult ; Arrhythmias, Cardiac ; Biomarkers ; Cardiology ; Comorbidity ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; Electronic Health Records ; Heart Failure* ; Heart* ; Humans ; Inpatients ; Korea ; Outpatients ; Self Care ; Seoul ; Stroke Volume ; Symptom Assessment ; Tertiary Care Centers

PURPOSE: As comprehensive nursing care service has gradually expanded, it has become necessary to explore the various opinions about it. The purpose of this study is to explore the large amount of text data regarding comprehensive nursing care service extracted from online news and social media by applying a semantic network analysis. METHODS: The web pages of the Korean Nurses Association (KNA) News, major daily newspapers, and Twitter were crawled by searching the keyword ‘comprehensive nursing care service’ using Python. A morphological analysis was performed using KoNLPy. Nodes on a ‘comprehensive nursing care service’ cluster were selected, and frequency, edge weight, and degree centrality were calculated and visualized with Gephi for the semantic network. RESULTS: A total of 536 news pages and 464 tweets were analyzed. In the KNA News and major daily newspapers, ‘nursing workforce’ and ‘nursing service’ were highly rated in frequency, edge weight, and degree centrality. On Twitter, the most frequent nodes were ‘National Health Insurance Service’ and ‘comprehensive nursing care service hospital.’ The nodes with the highest edge weight were ‘national health insurance,’‘wards without caregiver presence,’ and ‘caregiving costs.’‘National Health Insurance Service’ was highest in degree centrality. CONCLUSION: This study provides an example of how to use atypical big data for a nursing issue through semantic network analysis to explore diverse perspectives surrounding the nursing community through various media sources. Applying semantic network analysis to online big data to gather information regarding various nursing issues would help to explore opinions for formulating and implementing nursing policies.
Boidae ; Caregivers ; Communications Media ; Humans ; Insurance, Health ; Nursing Care* ; Nursing Services ; Nursing* ; Periodicals ; Semantics* ; Social Media*

OBJECTIVES: This study conducted a meta-analysis to examine the effectiveness of computer and Internet training interventions intended to reduce loneliness and depression in older adults. METHODS: Searches were performed to retrieve studies that had been published in peer-reviewed journals from January 2001 to July 2012 and written in English or Korean from PubMed, CINAHL, Scopus, the Cochrane Library, PsycINFO, KoreaMed, KMbase, KISS, MEDLIS, and RISS. We used combinations of the keywords for population, intervention, and psychosocial problems. A meta-analysis was employed to summarize the findings of studies on computer and Internet interventions for older adults. An overall mean weighted effect size for each outcome was calculated, and Q statistics were used to test the heterogeneity of variance in the effect sizes of the selected studies. RESULTS: As the Q statistics revealed heterogeneity, random effects models were chosen for the meta-analysis. The overall mean weighted effect size for loneliness from five studies was statistically significant for decreased loneliness (Z = 2.085, p = 0.037). However, the overall mean weighted effect size for depression from five studies was not statistically significant (Z = 1.528, p = 0.126). CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that computer and Internet programs were effective in managing loneliness among older adults. Therefore, further computer-mediated social support should be considered to help manage loneliness in this population.
Adult ; Depression ; Humans ; Internet ; Loneliness ; Population Characteristics

No abstract available.
Delivery of Health Care*

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to examine the adherence to physical activity (PA) among older adults in Korea using data from the Fourth Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES IV), and to illustrate geographic variations in PA using Geographic Information Systems (GIS). METHODS: A secondary analysis of the KNHANES IV data from 2007 to 2008 was used for this study. Participants of the study included 2,241 older adults over the age of 65. Estimates on adherence to PA were obtained for vigorous, moderate, walking, strengthening, and stretching activities. All estimates were weighted to represent Korean population. The association between participants' characteristics and PA was analyzed using Wald chi-square test. Maps depicting regional variations in PA were created using GIS software. RESULTS: Adherence to PA among Korean older adults who met national recommendations during the period of year 2007-2008 was about 9% in vigorous activity, 10% in moderate activity, and 48% in walking. The most common type of PA was walking. A higher level of PA was associated with male gender, younger age, high level of income and education, and living with family. CONCLUSION: The majority of older adults did not meet the national PA recommendations, suggesting that consistent surveillance and intervention for PA in the geriatric population are needed in the future. Maps generated using GIS visually showed regional differences in PA among the study participants.
Adult ; Aged ; Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; Geographic Information Systems ; Humans ; Korea ; Male ; Motor Activity ; Nutrition Surveys ; Walking

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to examine factors related to burnout of nurses at hemato-oncology wards. METHODS: The participants were 134 nurses working at hematology-oncology wards in three tertiary general hospitals in Seoul and Gyeonggi Province. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire that consisted of personal characteristics, occupational stress, satisfaction and burnout. Using a SPSS/WIN 12.0 program, descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA, and stepwise multiple regression procedures were employed. RESULTS: The mean score of burnout reported by the participants was 3.15 +/- 0.50 (range 1~5), showing the highest scores in the area of physical burnout (3.53 +/- 0.57). The satisfaction with nursing profession was found to be the most impact on the burnout of the hematology-oncology ward nurses (beta=-.533), followed by occupational stress (beta=.351) and years of clinical experiences (beta=-.154). CONCLUSION: Given the findings, the sorts of strategies to increase the satisfaction with nursing profession and decrease their occupational stress are required, particularly for newly employed nurses.
Hospitals, General ; Humans ; Surveys and Questionnaires