PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of self-efficacy promotion programs on self-efficacy, self-care behavior, and quality of life in breast cancer patients receiving radiation therapy. METHODS: This study was conducted from November 1, 2009 to December 10, 2010. A total of 39 breast cancer patients, who received radiotherapy in a University hospital located in city B, participated in the study and were divided into two groups (experimental group 17 and control group 22). The data were analyzed with the chi2-test and ANCOVA using the SPSS/Win 17.0 program. RESULTS: Self-efficacy promotion programs aimed at self-management were effective in enhancing concrete self-efficacy but not effective in promoting general self-efficacy, self-care behavior, and quality of life among breast cancer patients who have received radiotherapy. CONCLUSION: Organizing a support group for the breast cancer patients seems to be highly necessary to help themselves obtain higher level of specific self-efficacy, self-care behavior, and quality of life in general. It will also be beneficial for the breast cancer patients to understand their unique situations and improve their health problems for themselves.
Breast ; Breast Neoplasms ; Humans ; Quality of Life ; Self Care ; Self Efficacy ; Self-Help Groups

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of a six month web-based diabetic education on plasma glucose in people with diabetes. METHOD: A randomized design with control and experimental groups being assessed pre- and post-intervention was used. Seventeen patients were randomly assigned to a control group and 18 to an experimental group. Participants were requested to input the blood glucose level weekly to http://www.biodang.com by cellular phone or wire Internet for 6 months. The researcher sent optimal recommendations to each patient using the short message service (SMS) for cellular phone and wire Internet. Messages were sent weekly for 6 months. RESULTS: Glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c) decreased 1.5 percentage points at 3 months and 1.4 percentage points at 6 months compared with baseline in the intervention group. Patients in the intervention group had a decrease in 2 hours post meal glucose (2HPMG) of 94.3mg/dl at 3 months and 82.5mg/dl at 6 months compared with baseline. CONCLUSION: This web-based intervention using SMS for cellular phone improved HbA1c, and 2HPMG for six months in patients with type 2 diabetes.
Blood Glucose ; Smartphone* ; Education ; Glucose ; Hemoglobin A, Glycosylated ; Humans ; Internet ; Meals ; Text Messaging

PURPOSE: To investigate the influence of clinical and demographical variables on depression, instrumental activities of daily living (IADL), and cognitive function in patients with Parkinson's disease. METHOD: Using a structured questionnaire data were collected from 100 participants registered in the neurology department of C university hospital. Duration and stage of disease, fall history, vision impairment, duration and quality of sleep, orthostatic hypotension, ambulation impairment, and use of walking aid were included in clinical variables. Depression, IADL, and cognitive function were assessed using Kee's GDSSF-K, Cho's scale, and K-MMSE. Collected data were analyzed using the SAS program. RESULTS: The depression score for the participants was 7.78, higher than cut-off score(5). Participants who were male, living with spouse, above high school education, high economic status, with no vision impairment, and no ambulation impairment revealed high cognitive scores. Average IADL score were significantly higher for participants who were male, who had high economic status, low stage of disease, and no ambulation impairment. Depression IADL & cognitive function scores were significantly different according to ambulation impairment. Scores for ADL and cognitive function were positively correlated. CONCLUSION: It is recommended that make programs for patients with Parkinson's disease, clinical and demographic variables should be considered according to their individual needs.
Activities of Daily Living* ; Cognition ; Depression* ; Education ; Humans ; Hypotension, Orthostatic ; Male ; Neurology ; Parkinson Disease* ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Spouses ; Walking

The small scale industries in Korea are important in occupational health care management due to high accident rate and poor working condition. The authors surveyed the 4,811 small scale industries participated in the 1997 subsidiary program on health care management. The contents of survey were the general characteristics of the factory, the results of workers' general and occupational health examination, the results of workplace environmental monitoring, and the number of occupational accident and injured person at 1995 and 1996. We classified all industries by 67 groups. The prevalence of the general disease was higher in 'Manufacture of other fabricated metal productsj. rManufacture of textiles', 'Manufacture of basic metalsj. In occupational disease, that was higher in FManufacture of metal products', 'Manufacture of basic metals', so in environmental monitoring in 'Manufacture of textiles', 'Manufacture of other fabricated metal products' 'Printfrig' in occupational injuries in 'Manufacture of chemical products', 'Manufacture of basic metals'. However the factories of 'manufacture of motor vehicle', 'manufacture of machine and equipment', 'manufacture of electric product' in the program are large in magnitude, but less important in occupational health management. We observed that the prevalence of general disease, occupational disease, workplace environmental monitoring, occupational injuries of subsidized industries in 1996 were increased compared with those in 1995. and were larger than those of nationwide statistics. These phenomenon shows that the subsidiary health program for participated industries is important and to be urgent. We observed that the major groups in district were different and so the approaching method of each district must be various and different. And the health program manager should focus on the C grade in health examination and the action level in workplace monitoring more than the D grade and the permissible level.
Accidents, Occupational ; Delivery of Health Care* ; Environmental Monitoring ; Humans ; Korea ; Occupational Diseases ; Occupational Health* ; Occupational Injuries ; Prevalence

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to investigate symptom frequency and symptom discomfort in liver, kidney and heart transplant recipients. METHODS: This descriptive, comparative study included 191 subjects (86 liver, 81 kidney, 24 heart: 135 male, 56 female). The symptom frequency and distress questionnaires were used to examine the symptom experience of the subjects. RESULTS: The most frequent and distressing symptom was fatigue. Increased hair, increased appetite, poor concentration and poor vision were frequently reported and poor vision, poor concentration, muscle weakness, and headache were causing high distress. Women reported a significantly higher level of symptom frequency and discomfort than men. Heart recipients reported a significantly higher level of symptom frequency and discomfort than renal or liver recipients. Significant (P<0.05) differences were found in symptom frequency and discomfort depending on transplant organs, numbers of immunosuppressants genders, age and types of drug and time after transplantation. Most of symptoms were related to the side effects of cyclosporine or corticosteroids. CONCLUSION: The results provide a basis for patient and family education and for symptom management. Further investigation of the symptom experience of the transplant patients is needed, especially in relation to quality of life.
Adrenal Cortex Hormones ; Appetite ; Cyclosporine ; Education ; Fatigue ; Female ; Hair ; Headache ; Heart ; Humans ; Immunosuppressive Agents ; Kidney ; Liver ; Male ; Muscle Weakness ; Quality of Life ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Transplantation ; Transplants*

BACKGROUND: Surgical site infection (SSI) is generally considered second or third most important infection type in nosocomial infections. However, there are only a few national surveillances about surgical site infection and prophylactic antibiotics use. We performed the surveillance of surgical site infections and antibiotic use in joint replacement operation, which is difficult and costly to treat. METHODS: The surveillance study of the hip joint (HRA) and knee joint replacement surgery (KRA) was performed in four university hospitals from July 2006 to December 2006. The Clinical variables, operative risk factors for SSI, and information of prophylactic antibiotics uses were evaluated. SSI surveillance was done in 2 weeks, 1 month, 3 month, 6 month, and 1 year after surgery. RESULTS: A total of 436 cases (HRA, 227; KRA, 209) were enrolled for SSI surveillance. The SSI rates of HRA and KRA were 1.32 (3/227), and 1.44 (3/209) per 100 operations, respectively. The most of operation site was clean wound (97.9%). Staphylococcus aureus was observed in 19.8% before operation and among S. aureus infections about 20% was methicillin-resistant strain. The 1st generation cephalosporins were most frequently used for prophyaxis occupying 65.1%. The median duration of antibiotic use was 12 days (1-79 days). Any other specific risk factors were not correlated with SSI development. CONCLUSION: The multicenter surveillance study of SSI was first performed in Korea. The SSI rate was comparable with SSI reported in other country. We need to analyze the risk factors of SSI after collecting the data through further studies.
Anti-Bacterial Agents ; Cephalosporins ; Cross Infection ; Hip Joint ; Hospitals, University ; Joints ; Knee Joint ; Korea ; Methicillin Resistance ; Risk Factors ; Sprains and Strains ; Staphylococcus aureus

No abstract available.
Aged, 80 and over ; DNA, Ribosomal/chemistry ; Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2/*complications/diagnosis ; Fatal Outcome ; Humans ; Male ; Mucormycosis/*complications/diagnosis/*microbiology ; Rhizopus/*isolation & purification ; Sequence Analysis, DNA ; Sequence Homology ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed

No abstract available.
Adult ; Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Blood Chemical Analysis/instrumentation ; Blood Platelets/*cytology/physiology ; Female ; Flow Cytometry/*instrumentation/standards ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Platelet Count/*instrumentation/standards ; Reference Values ; Republic of Korea ; Young Adult

Cases of pediatric eosinophilic meningitis following duraplasty with a bovine graft have been reported. These patients recovered following the surgical removal of the dural graft or steroid therapy. Decompression for Chiari malformation is a common procedure in both pediatric and adult neurosurgery. We describe the case of a 33-yr-old male patient with eosinophilic meningitis following Chiari decompression via bovine graft duraplasty. Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) study showed 49 red blood cells/μL and 129 leukocytes/μL with 17% eosinophils. There was no evidence of infectious disease. To our knowledge, this is the first report of adult eosinophilic meningitis after bovine graft duraplasty in Korea.
Adult* ; Arnold-Chiari Malformation* ; Cerebrospinal Fluid ; Communicable Diseases ; Decompression ; Eosinophils* ; Humans ; Korea ; Male ; Meningitis* ; Neurosurgery ; Transplants*

BACKGROUND: The Di(a) antigen has been detected with a relatively higher incidence among Koreans with a frequency of 6.4 to 14.5%. In South Korea, commonly used unexpected antibody screening panels do not include Di(a) antigen positive cells. We screened patients who previously received multiple packed red cell transfusion using two cells without Di(a) antigen and three cells including Di(a) antigen to evaluate the effectiveness of three screening cells. METHODS: A total of 307 patients who had received packed red cell transfusion more than three times during the last 6 months in our hospital were enrolled. They were employed for unexpected antibody screening test using two sets of screening cells not including Di(a) antigen and three sets including Di(a) antigen by LISS/Coombs gel card. RESULTS: Among 307 patients, 12 were positive using two cells and 15 were positive using three cells. Three patients showed discordant result and one of them was positive for the cell including Di(a) antigen (0.33%). Antibody identification was performed using the panel which does not include Di(a) antigen and it was negative for all of the antigens listed on the panel so that the presence of anti-Di(a) was suspected. CONCLUSION: It can be difficult to use three cells including Di(a) antigen for all patients due to cost, however, use of three cells is recommended in patients with multiple transfusion history.
Humans ; Incidence ; Korea ; Mass Screening*