PURPOSE: This study was done to develop a reproductive health program to improve reproductive health of women immigrants. METHODS: The participants in the study were 58 immigrant women who lived in Vietnam, China, Philippines, or Cambodia before marriage. They were assigned to the experiment group (n=29) or the control group (n=29). The reproductive health program for this study consisted of reproductive health education, health counseling, phone monitoring, and emotional support based on Cox (1982)'s Interaction Model of Client Health Behavior and was implemented for four weeks. RESULTS: There were significant differences in reproductive health knowledge (t=9.78, p<.001), reproductive health attitude (t=6.59, p<.001), and reproductive health behavior (t=5.11, p<.001) within and between groups after the reproductive health program. But there were no significant differences in clinical indicators between the two groups. CONCLUSION: The results of this study indicate the that reproductive health program for the women immigrants is effective in terms of reproductive health knowledge, reproductive health attitude and reproductive health behaviors. Therefore, nurses in public and private facilities, such as multicultural centers and public health centers in each community, should develop strategies to expand and provide reproductive health programs for women immigrants.
Adult ; Counseling ; Emigrants and Immigrants/*psychology ; Female ; Health Behavior ; Health Education ; Health Promotion ; Health Status ; Humans ; Interviews as Topic ; Marriage ; *Program Development ; Program Evaluation ; Questionnaires ; *Reproductive Health ; Telephone ; Women/*psychology

PURPOSE: This study was conducted to develop a customized birth control program and identify its effects on attitude, subjective norm, behavioral control, intention, and behavior of contraception among immigrant postpartum mothers. METHODS: In this experimental study, Vietnamese, Filipino or Cambodian married immigrant postpartum mothers were recruited. They were assigned to the experiment group (n=21) or control group (n=21). The customized birth control program was provided to the experimental group for 4 weeks. RESULTS: The experimental group showed a significant increase in the score of attitude, subjective norm, behavioral control, intention, and behavior of contraception. CONCLUSION: Findings in this study indicate that the customized postpartum birth control program, a systematic and integrative intervention program composed of customized health education, counseling and telephone monitoring, is able to provide effective planning for postpartum health promotion and birth control behavior practice in married immigrant women.
Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; Contraception* ; Counseling ; Emigrants and Immigrants* ; Female ; Health Education ; Health Promotion ; Humans ; Intention ; Mothers* ; Parturition* ; Postpartum Period* ; Telephone

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of pelvic floor muscle exercise using electric stimulation and biofeedback on maximum pressure of vaginal contraction, vaginal contraction duration and sexual function in women who have had vaginal rejuvenation. METHODS: The research design was a non-equivalent control group non-synchronized design study. Participants in this study were women who had vaginal rejuvenation at C obstetrics and gynecology hospital. The 15 participants in the experimental group were given pelvic floor muscle exercise using electric stimulation and biofeedback and the 15 participants in the control group received self pelvic floor muscle exercise. RESULTS: For maximum pressure of vaginal contraction, the experimental group showed a statistically significant increase compared to than the control group (t=5.96, p<.001). For vaginal contraction duration, the experimental group also showed a statistically significant increase compared to the control group (t=3.23, p=.003). For women's sexual function, the experimental group showed a significant increase when compared to the control group in total sexual function scores (t=3.41, p=.002). CONCLUSION: The results indicate that pelvic floor muscle exercise with electric stimulation and biofeedback after vaginal rejuvenation is effective in strengthening vaginal contraction pressure, vaginal contraction and that it also positively functions to increase women's sexual function.
Adult ; Biofeedback, Psychology ; *Electric Stimulation ; *Exercise ; Female ; Humans ; Middle Aged ; Muscle Contraction/physiology ; Pelvic Floor/*physiology ; Rejuvenation/*physiology ; Sexual Behavior/psychology ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Vagina/*physiology/surgery

Purpose: The objective of this study was to develop a structural model to assess and forecast the quality of life in climacteric women, focusing the concept of salutogenesis. Methods: Participants were sourced from two urban locations through convenience sampling. Data collection involved questionnaires, analyzed using SPSS 21.0 and AMOS 20.0. Assessment instruments comprised the Menopause Rating Scale, New General Self-Efficacy Scale, Sense of Coherence Scale, and the Korean version of the WHOQOL-BREF. Results: The fit indices of the proposed model met recommended standards. The sense of coherence, menopausal symptoms, and self-efficacy accounted for 58% of the quality of life variance, with sense of coherence emerging as the most significant predictor. Menopausal symptoms directly and negatively affected quality of life (β=-0.30, p<0.001), and had an indirect influence through self-efficacy and integration (β=-0.30, p<0.001). Self-efficacy positively influenced quality of life directly (β=0.27, p<0.001) and indirectly through integration (β=0.14, p=0.001). Integration positively affected quality of life directly (β=0.36, p<0.001). Conclusion Interventions to bolster sense of coherence are crucial for enhancing the quality of life among climacteric women.

PURPOSE: This study was a descriptive study to determine the knowledge and health beliefs regarding cervical cancer of married immigrant women's husbands and understanding of the cervical cancer human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination rate of married immigrant women by their husbands. METHODS: The participants of this study were 200 immigrant women's husbands living in G province. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire through interviews from March 20 to May 23, 2014. The data were analyzed using t-tests and ANOVA. RESULTS: The mean score of cervical cancer knowledge was low (11.98 score). Regarding health beliefs about cervical cancer, the levels of perceived susceptibility (3.59), seriousness (3.22) and barrier (3.46) were relatively high, whereas the levels of perceived benefit (2.84) was relatively low. The rate of HPV vaccination among the spouses of subjects was low (11.5%). CONCLUSION: According to this study, it is considered to be important to improve the knowledge level of cervical cancer among married immigrant women's husbands through education. In addition, there needs to be a change in attitude towards the HPV vaccination by reducing barriers and stressing the benefits of preventive health behavior regarding cervical cancer. These measures could help increase HPV vaccination among married immigrant women.
Education ; Emigrants and Immigrants* ; Female ; Health Behavior ; Humans ; Spouses* ; Uterine Cervical Neoplasms* ; Vaccination ; Surveys and Questionnaires

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: The purpose of this study was 1) to examine levels of awareness on preconception care and pregnancy, and reproductive health promoting behavior among pre-honeymooners; and 2) to explore the relationship between awareness levels of preconception care and pregnancy, and reproductive health promoting behavior. METHODS: This study was a correlation design with a total of 134 participants (67 couples of pre-honeymooners). Data were collected with questionnaire. RESULTS: Mean score of self-perception of awareness of preconception care and pregnancy was 2.82 out of 4. Content awareness level was 6.83 out of 13, and reproductive health promoting behavior score was 3.02 out of 4, indicating low to mid-level. Women reported higher scores in all variables than those in men. Self-perception awareness and content awareness of care and pregnancy had a weak positive correlation (r=.18, p=.038). Reproductive health promoting behavior was positively related to self-perception awareness of care and pregnancy (r=.33, p<.001) and content awareness of care and pregnancy (r=.23, p=.008). CONCLUSION: Based on this results, a variety of nursing intervention strategies may need to promote reproductive health behavior such as raising awareness of the preconception care and pregnancy.
Family Characteristics ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Nursing ; Preconception Care* ; Pregnancy ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Reproductive Health* ; Self Concept

PURPOSE: This study was designed to analyze the results of echocardiographic findings in children with heart murmur detected at mass health screening in Kyeong-Nam province. METHODS: Between 1996 and 2001, children with heart murmur underwent the echocardiographic examination at Gyoeongsang National University Hospital. RESULTS: The number of children examined was 129 in 1996, 26 in 1997, 44 in 1998, 61 in 1999, 60 in 2000, and 49 in 2001. By the echocardiographic examination, innocent murmur was the most commonly diagnosed(31-65%) and ventricular septal defect(VSD) was the most common cardiac defect. Between 1996 and 1998, complex cyanotic heart diseases were more frequent. The number of patients undergoing surgical treatment was 9 in 1996, 10 in 1997, 7 in 1998, 5 in 1999, 2 in 2000, and 2 in 2001. CONCLUSION: By the echocardiographic examination, functional murmur was the most commonly diagnosed and VSD was the most common cardiac defect. Currently, heart defects detected tend to be more simple and the surgical treatment needed seems to decrease in number.
Child* ; Echocardiography* ; Heart Diseases ; Heart Murmurs* ; Heart* ; Humans ; Mass Screening*

No abstract available.
Aorta, Thoracic* ; Humans ; Infarction*

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to identify the relationships among nutritional supplement intake, subjective health status, health control level and health promotion behaviors and to investigate factors affecting health promotion behaviors in pregnant women. METHODS: A total of 153 pregnant women was recruited from a university hospital in J city in Korea. Data were collected using self-reported questionnaires. RESULTS: Most participants (91.5%) took nutritional supplements. Health promotion behavior had positive correlations with subjective health status (r=0.313, p < 0.001), internal control (r=0.229, p=0.004), powerful others locus of control (r=0.162, p=0.046), and doctors locus of control (r=0.215, p=0.008). There was a negative correlation between health promotion behavior and chance locus of control (r=−0.273, p=0.001). Health status (β=0.25, p=0.001), chance locus of control (β=−0.28, p < 0.001), doctors locus of control (β=0.20, p=0.009), and powerful others locus of control (β=0.16, p=0.033) were significant predictors for health promotion behavior. These variables explained 25.8% of the variance in health promotion behavior. CONCLUSION: The study results indicate that it is necessary to develop a nutrition education program and nursing intervention in order to promote health for pregnant women.
Diagnostic Self Evaluation ; Education ; Female ; Health Promotion ; Humans ; Internal-External Control ; Korea ; Nursing ; Pregnant Women