PURPOSE: This study was done to identify the status of smartphone addiction among nursing students and to examine the mediating effects of Internet ethics on the relationship between smartphone addiction, physical symptoms and psychological well-being. METHODS: Data were collected between May 20 and June 23, 2014. Participants were a convenience sample of 214 nursing students of one university in Seoul. Structured questionnaires were used to measure degree of smartphone addiction, physical symptoms, psychological well-being and Internet ethics. Data was analyzed using Independent t-test, One-way ANOVA, Pearson correlation coefficient, multiple hierarchical regression. RESULTS: Of the nursing students, 14.5% had high level of risk of smartphone addiction and 16.8% had potential risk. Higher frequency of physical symptoms and lower level of Internet ethics were related to the higher level of smartphone addiction. Voluntary-control in Internet ethics had mediating effects on the relationship between smartphone addiction and physical symptoms. CONCLUSION: The results suggest that the level of smartphone addiction may lowered in nursing students by intensifying Internet ethics especially voluntary-control. Based on these findings, Internet ethics program for nursing students should be developed to facilitate the effective use of smartphones.
Smartphone ; Ethics* ; Humans ; Internet* ; Mental Health ; Negotiating* ; Nursing ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Seoul ; Students, Nursing*

Purpose: This study was conducted to identify influencing factors in a health promotion model that explains and predicts health promoting behavior in obese middle-aged women. Methods: Based on Pender’s health promotion model, a hypothetical model was constructed with nine factors (emotional eating, obesity stress, perceived benefits of action, perceived barriers to action, perceived self-efficacy, activity-related affect, social support, commitment to a plan of action, and health promoting behavior). The participants were 215 obese middle-aged women who visited one of three health check-up centers in Seoul, Incheon, or Gyeonggi Province to receive health check-ups through the National Health Insurance Corporation. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire. Results: In the final research model, the factors that had a direct impact on health promoting behavior of obese middle-aged women were obesity stress (β=-.17, p=.001), perceived self-efficacy (β=.34, p<.001), activity-related affect (β=.22, p<.001), commitment to a plan of action (β=.34, p<.001). The explanatory power was 51.3%. Conclusion This study found that a higher level of engagement in health promoting behavior was associated with lower obesity stress, higher perceived self-efficacy, better activity-related affect, and a higher commitment to a plan of action. These results may be used as a basis for the development of a nursing intervention program to improve health promoting behavior in obese middle-aged women.