A number of studies have shown that sleep disordered breathing (SDB) has a strong relation with obesity. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of a short-term weight-loss program in obese men with SDB. In our 14-week weight-loss program, forty-one obese men (mean±SD, age ; 49.6±10.8 yr, body mass index ; 27.9±2.5 kg/m²) were assigned to 2 subgroups : diet only (DO ; n=19) and diet plus aerobic exercise (DE ; n=22). 2%, 3%, and 4% oxygen desaturation index (ODI) were measured by pulse oximetry before and after the weight-loss program. Weight and %fat significantly (p<0.05) decreased in the total subject pool consisting of DO plus DE (weight ; -8.4±3.5 kg, %fat ; -7.5±3.5%). 2%, 3%, and 4% ODI significantly decreased by -3.46±5.01 event/hour, -2.37±3.57 event/hour, and -1.99±2.84 event/hour, respectively. Significant correlations were found between 2%, 3%, and 4% ODI at baseline and changes of 2%, 3%, and 4% ODI during the weight-loss program (2% ODI ; r=0.48, 3% ODI ; r=0.51, 4% ODI ; r=0.67). Weight loss and %fat loss did not differ significantly between DO and DE (DO : -7.6±3.2 kg, -6.8±3.2%, DE : -9.2±3.7 kg, -8.1±3.7%). The increase in maximal oxygen uptake was slightly larger for DE (4.7±4.6 ml/kg/min) compared to DO (2.5±3.3 ml/kg/min), but there was no significant interaction. Changes of 2%, 3%, and 4% ODI did not differ significantly between groups. These results suggest that for obese men with SDB, the weight-loss program is an effective method, leading to improvement in SDB, although the combination of aerobic exercise to diet may not produce additional effects to SDB, compared with the diet only.

The number of elderly diabetic patients has continued to increase year by year. Home-visit nursing care is beneficial to homebound elderly diabetic patients and there is a large number of senior citizens utilizing this form of health service. We conducted a questionnaire survey of home-visit nursing care of elderly diabetic patients. Those queried were participants in the diabetes workshop. Eighty-five of them responded to our questionnaire.The results showed that 87% of the respondents experienced care of diabetic patients and acute complications of hypoglycemia and hyperglycemia as well. It was also found that many home helpers extended assistance in drug compliance, indicating that home helpers play an important role in the medical care of elderly diabetic patients.On the other hand, many problems became apparent such as lack of observation of foot care, lack of knowledge of methods of treating hypoglycemia, and inadequate observation of drug compliance due to the limited availability of home visit time.Training and collaboration of local home-visit nursing care personnel are considered necessary in the future in order to improve on the home care of elderly diabetic patients.
Elderly ; Care given by nurses ; Questionnaires ; Home ; Surveys