Little is known about sexual autonomy in the light of human sexual health or sexual behavior. The purpose of this study was to increase understanding of sexual autonomy by developing a scale to measure sexual autonomy in college students. The measure was based on the perspective of human beings as having autonomy. A methodological developmental design was used. The study was done in three steps and included concept development through content analysis of relevant literature individual interviews using open-ended questions with 19 college students, item analysis of data from self report questionnaires for item to total correlation, content validity index by professionals and college students, and factor analysis with principal component analysis. Three groups participated in testing the measurement scale; Group A in 1998, a nationwide convenience sample of college students (n=1,163), Group B, college students in 1999 (n=233), and Group C, college students in 2000 who responded to the measurement scale before and after a sex education program (n=216). A series of exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted to test validity. For analysis of the questionnaires, statistical methods including reliability (test-retest), item to total analysis, content validity, factor analysis for construct validity and t-test for mean difference according to gender, sexual coitus, previous sex education, and pre-post experiment sex education were used with SPSS 10.0. Results: 1. Two stable factors were extracted and these contributed 48.05% of the variance in the total score. All 13 items loaded above .40 on each factor. 2. Factor I with 10 items was named 'control' and factor II with 3 items and was named 'coping'. 3. Differences in sexual autonomy scores for college students according to their experience showed that there were significantly higher scores for sexual autonomy in the post sex education group(t=-10.841, p=.000), but there were no differences according to whether or not they had previous sex education. Female college students had higher sexual autonomy scores than male college students in A or B group (t=-5.933, p=.000/ t=-1.992, p=.048). 4. Cronbach's alpha was .8603 for the total 13 items with 1,632 college students, .8739 with 232 students, .8333~.7647 with pre-post sex education with 216 students. This measurement was found to have a high validity and reliability for measuring sexual autonomy in college students. Therefore, the author recommends that it be used to measure the effects of sex education. It is suggested that further study is needed to analyze the relationship between sexual autonomy and sexual behavior. 5. Economic status(gamma33=-.44, t=-6.01) had a positive direct effect on perceived life stress. The results of this study showed that self-esteem had the most significant direct effect on depression. Meaning of life and health status had significant direct effect on this self-esteem. Volunteer activity and health status had direct effect on meaning of life. The results of this study suggested that there is a need to develope intervention to promote degree of self-esteem and alleviate degree of depression in middle-aged women.
Coitus ; Depression ; Factor VII ; Female ; Fibrinogen ; Humans ; Male ; Principal Component Analysis ; Prothrombin ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Reproducibility of Results ; Reproductive Health ; Self Report ; Sex Education ; Sexual Behavior ; Stress, Psychological ; Volunteers

No abstract available.
Complementary Therapies

No abstract available.
Complementary Therapies

PURPOSE: With the continuous spread of the AIDS virus and other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) throughout Asia, it has become imperative for HIV/AIDS prevention outreach programs to stress the need for using prophylactics as one form of protection. This is particularly true for commercial sex workers. This pilot study was conducted to investigate the rate of condom use among the commercial sex workers in Korea and reasons why they frequently do not wear condoms during sexual intercourse. METHODS: Fifty female commercial sex workers who worked in the Yong San area were recruited while outreach was performed and forty eight responses were analyzed due to two incomplete questionnaires. The data were collected on June 28, 2004 as part of an outreach program for condom use promotion. RESULTS: The subjects ranged in age from 21 to 45 years. Nearly half of the subjects (47.9%) did not consistently use condoms. The major reason for not using protection was clients'reluctances for using condoms. When condoms were used, the subjects preferred lubricant-rich and less painful condom during intercourse. CONCLUSION: Due to the inconsistent use of condoms, it is clear that many commercial sex workers and clients are susceptible to sexually transmitted diseases. Therefore, it is important to not only educate commercial sex workers, but also to educate their pimps and clientele about the importance of condom use. In general, it is recommended that practical strategies and a policy for condom use promotion be developed.
Adult ; Community-Institutional Relations ; Condoms/*utilization ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; Decision Making ; Female ; HIV Infections/epidemiology/prevention & control ; *Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice ; Health Policy ; Health Promotion ; Health Services Needs and Demand ; Humans ; Korea/epidemiology ; Middle Aged ; Pilot Projects ; Prostitution/*psychology/statistics & numerical data ; Questionnaires ; Risk-Taking ; Safe Sex/ethnology/*psychology/statistics & numerical data ; Sex Education ; Sexual Partners/psychology ; Sexually Transmitted Diseases/epidemiology/prevention & control ; Time Factors

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to identify the influencing factors on postpartum fatigue in the parturient women. METHODS: The data were collected from July to September, 2006 using self-report questionnaires. The sample was 143 healthy parturient women who visited the outpatient clinic at 2 hospitals for a routine follow up after childbirth. The data were analyzed by using SPSS 12.0 Win program. RESULTS: There were significant differences in the postpartum fatigue by age, religion, sleep hour, and complaint of perceived health problem. The postpartum fatigue were significantly correlated with infant care stress(p<0.001), sleep satisfaction(p<0.001), and feeding difficulty(p=0.016). The multiple regression analysis showed that the postpartum fatigue were significantly predicted by the infant care stress, sleep satisfaction and complaint of perceived health problem. These variables explained 31.8% of the variance of postpartum fatigue. The infant care stress was the main predictor of postpartum fatigue. CONCLUSIONS: It could be concluded that the nursing intervention for reducing the infant care stress should be developed to manage the postpartum fatigue for parturient women. Prospective studies are needed to be conducted to verify the causal relationship between infant care stress and postpartum fatigue.
Ambulatory Care Facilities ; Fatigue* ; Female ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Infant ; Infant Care ; Nursing ; Parturition ; Postpartum Period* ; Surveys and Questionnaires

The present study was intended to examine the effect of sodium vanadate on contractility of vascular smooth muscle. Aortic ring preparations were made from the rabbit thoracic aorta and endothelial cells were removed from the ring. The contractility of the aortic ring was measured under various conditions. The results were summarized as follows; 1) Sodium vanadate induced contraction of vascular smooth muscle in a dose-dependent fashion. 2) The contractile effects were not blocked by treatments with adrenergic blocking agent(phentolamine) and indomethacin, indicating the direct action of the drug on vascular smooth muscle. 3) In the presence of ouabain, Na(+)-K(+)-ATPase inhibitor, sodium vanadate still increased the contractility of vascular smooth muscle. 4) Treatment with 4.4'-diisothiocyanostilbene-2.2'-disulfonic acid(DIDS) blocked completely the contractile effects of sodium vanadate. 5) In the presence of verapamil, lanthanum and ryanodine, the contractility of the vascular smooth muscle by sodium vanadate was decreased. From the above results. it was suggested that sodium vanadate acts directly on vascular smooth muscle and causes contraction. It was probably due to inhibition of Ca(++)-ATPase in plasma membrane as well as increasing the release of Ca(++) from sarcoplasmic reticulum and Ca(++) influx across the plasma membrane, but not inhibition of Na(+)-K(+)-ATPase.
Aorta, Thoracic ; Cell Membrane ; Endothelial Cells ; Indomethacin ; Lanthanum ; Muscle, Smooth, Vascular* ; Ouabain ; Ryanodine ; Sarcoplasmic Reticulum ; Sodium* ; Vanadates* ; Verapamil

Caffeine has been known to induce the contraction of rabbit aortic ring resulting from Ca2+ release from the intracellular stores. But in contrast, contraction of aortic ring induced by depolarizing agents or agonist was reported to be suppressed by caffeine. The present study was intended to examine the effect of caffeine on Ca2+ movement across the plasma membrane and actomyosin ATPase activity of vascular smooth muscle to elucidate the modes of action of caffeine on the vascular smooth muscle. Aortic ring preparation were made from the rabbit thoracic aorta and the endothelial cells were removed from the ring by gentle rubbing. The contractilty of the aortic ring was measured under varying conditions, and Ca2+ influx across the membranes of the aortic ring was measured with Ca2+ sensitive electrode with and without caffeine and the effect of caffeine on actomyosin ATPase activity were measured by modified Hartshrone's method. 45Ca wash out curves with and without caffeine were studied by Richard's method. The results were summarized as follows: 1) Caffeine inhibited the contractilty induced by norepinephrine. high K+, and histamine. but caffeine alone induced a transient contraction of vascular smooth muscle. The caffeine induced contraction was demonstrable even in the absence of external Ca2+. 2) Caffeine increased 45Ca efflux from vascular smooth muscle. 3) In the presence of propranolol, the inhibitory effect of caffeine on epinephrine induced contraction still persisted. 4) Caffeine decreased norepinephrine induced Ca2+ influx through the plasma membranes of aortic ring. 5) Caffeine decreased the actomyosin ATPase activity of vascular smooth muscle. From the above results, it is suggested that caffeine induces the contraction of vascular smooth muscle by release of Ca2+ from intracellular Ca2+ stone, but inhibits drug-induced contraction by decrease of Ca2+ influx across the plasma membranes and a decreased Ca2+ sensitivity of contractile protein in vascular smooth muscle.
Actomyosin* ; Aorta, Thoracic ; Caffeine* ; Cell Membrane ; Electrodes ; Endothelial Cells ; Epinephrine ; Histamine ; Membranes ; Muscle, Smooth, Vascular* ; Myosins* ; Norepinephrine ; Propranolol

No abstract available.

To identify strategies to prevent sexual problems in teenage girls, respondents in this study answered two open-ended questions: "What are strategies for teenage school girls to prevent unwanted coitus?" and "What are strategies for teenage girls to prevent pregnancy?" The respondents were 12,733 girls from an accessible population of 19,000, a multi-stage cluster sample from a population of 1,988,902 girls attending 4,684 schools in the seven largest cities and nine provinces in Korea. Data were collected by mail between October 2 and October 28, 2000. The response rate was 68.9%. The total number of responses for the first question was 10,345, and for the second, 9,624. Data were analyzed by content analysis. The results of this study are: 1. According to priority, frequent strategies to prevent unwanted coitus were, self assertiveness (35.7%), heterosexual interaction training (24.6%), sex education (21.2%), and innovations in the system of social culture (4.7%). The order of priority was the same whether the respondents had experienced coitus or not. 2. According to priority, frequent strategies to prevent pregnancy were, heterosexual interaction training (27.4%), sex education (26.2%), contraceptive use and induced abortion (21.4%), and innovations in the system of social culture (3.2%). The first priority for the respondents who had not experienced coitus was heterosexual interaction training (27.7%) but contraceptive use (35.5%) was the first priority for the group who had experienced coitus. In sex education, a focus on contraceptive use for teenage girls who have experienced coitus and on heterosexual interaction training for those who have not, would strengthen preventive strategies for these two sexual problems. Assertiveness training as part of sex education would further strengthen prevention strategies.
Abortion, Induced ; Assertiveness ; Coitus ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Female* ; Heterosexuality ; Humans ; Korea* ; Postal Service ; Pregnancy ; Sex Education

No abstract available.
Lymphocytes* ; Macrophages* ; Nitric Oxide*