The high prevalence, mortality and medical cost in diabetes mellitus raise the issue of diabetes management as one of the important component of social well-being. Self-management education for type 2 diabetic patients reduces direct medical costs, improves the treatment effect, prevents acute and chronic diabetes-related complications and helps to improve the quality of life. So, establishment of standardized educational contents, educator management program with high quality will be needed through the understanding of the medical insurance coverage for diabetes education/counseling and evaluation of the clinical educational intervention level.
Diabetes Complications ; Diabetes Mellitus ; Education* ; Humans ; Insurance Coverage* ; Insurance* ; Mortality ; Prevalence ; Quality of Life ; Self Care

Purpose: This study aimed to determine the effects of a 12-week metabolic syndrome BeHaS (Be Happy and Strong) program in elderly people with metabolic syndrome living alone, based on a community-based participatory research (CBPR). Methods: A nonequivalent control group pre-posttest design was used, and the participants were 43 elderly people living alone (experimental group 24, control group 19). The experimental group received a one-hour program per week and two individual health consultations during 12 weeks. The control group received two sessions about the metabolic syndrome and two individual health consultations. The effects of health behavior, blood pressure, blood sugar levels, abdominal circumference, triglycerides, and self-esteem were evaluated. The data were analyzed using the independent t-test and Mann-Whitney U test. Results: The health behavior with respect to the metabolic syndrome in the experimental group increased significantly (t = - 3.19, p = .002). Both diastolic blood pressure and abdominal circumference decreased in the experimental group (t = 2.00, p = .028 and t = 3.91, p < .001). No significant differences were observed between the groups in systolic blood pressure, fasting blood sugar levels, triglycerides, and self-esteem. Conclusion The 12-week metabolic syndrome BeHaS program using community resources improves the health of elderly people with metabolic syndrome living alone. Based on these findings, further studies on the effectiveness of the metabolic syndrome BeHaS program and the experiences of those who participated in the CBPR are warranted.

PURPOSE: Bone morphogenetic protein-2(BMP-2) has been shown to possess significant osteoinducitve potential. There have been attempts to overcome a limitation of mass production, and economical efficiency of BMP. The aim of this study was to produce recombinant human BMP-2(rhBMP-2) from E. coli in a large scale and evaluate its biological activity. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The E.coli strain BL21(DE3) was used as a host for rhBMP-2 production. Dimerized rhBMP-2 was purified by affinity chromatography using Heparin column. To determine the physicochemical properties of the rhBMP-2 expressed in E. coli, we examined the HPLC profile and performed Western blot analysis. The effect of the purified rhBMP-2 dimer on osteoblast differentiation was examined by alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity and representing morphological change using C2C12 cell. RESULTS: E. coli was genetically engineered to produce rhBMP-2 in a non-active aggregated form. We have established a method which involves refolding and purifying a folded rhBMP-2 dimer from non-active aggregates. The purified rhBMP-2 homodimer was characterized by SDS-PAGE as molecular weight of about 28kDa and eluted at 34% acetonitrile, 13.27 min(retention time) in the HPLC profile and detected at Western blot. The purified rhBMP-2 dimer stimulated ALP activity and induced the transformation from myogenic differentiation to osteogenic differentiation. CONCLUSION: rhBMP-2 was produced in E. coli using genetic engineering. The purified rhBMP-2 dimer stimulated ALP activity and induced the osteogenic differentiation of C2C12 cells.
Acetonitriles ; Alkaline Phosphatase ; Blotting, Western ; Bone Morphogenetic Protein 2 ; Chromatography, Affinity ; Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid ; Durapatite ; Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel ; Genetic Engineering ; Heparin ; Humans ; Molecular Weight ; Osteoblasts ; Recombinant Proteins ; Sprains and Strains ; Transforming Growth Factor beta

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the reliability and validity of the Korean version of Diabetes Empowerment Measurement Scale Short Form (DES-SF) for use with diabetic patients in Korea. METHODS: A cross-sectional descriptive study was used with 107 participants. Bilingual nursing professionals performed translation and reverse translation. Reliability and validity such as face validity, construct validity, and concurrent validity were conducted. To assess the concurrent validity, the correlation coefficients between the Korean version of the DES-SF and a concurrent scale (Diabetes Self-Efficacy Scale, DSES) were calculated. RESULTS: In the explanatory factor analysis, a uni-dimension was proposed, the one factor accounted for 49.4% of total variances. The Korean version of the DES-SF correlated with a concurrent variable such DSES for reliability of the Korean version of the DES-SF, Cronbach's α=.85. CONCLUSION: The findings show that the Korean version of the DES-SF is reliable and valid for evaluating empowerment in patients with diabetes in Korea.
Humans ; Korea ; Nursing ; Power (Psychology)* ; Reproducibility of Results*