The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship among variables which are categorized by two groups : the first group consists of obesity, serum lipids, and blood pressure which were measured by physical index or physiological index, and the second group consists of demographic variables and variables related to lifestyle that is known to influence the first group. The canonical correlation analysis was conducted with the data collected from 400 male clients who visited one university hospital located in Inchon in a period, from May 1996 to December 1996, for physical examination. According to the results, blood pressure and HDL of the first group were shown to have strong relationship with age, alcohol, smoking, exercise of the second group. And total cholesterol, triglyceride, systolic, BMI of the first group were shown to have strong relationship with income status, education, exercise of the second group. And all of the serum lipids (total cholesterol, triglyceride, HDL), BMI, and diastolic were shown to have relationship with education, smoking, alcohol. It should be noted that fat rate, which was one of the indices for obesity, was not significant in any of the canonical variates. From the comparative study results on which combination of indices of obesity, serum lipids and blood pressure was related to either alcohol or smoking more, it can be seem that smoking was more highly related to two blood pressure indices such as systolic and diastolic, and that alcohol was highly related to serum lipid indices such as HDL, total cholesterol, triglyceride. Also investigation on what differences exist between the combination of variables showing high relationship to systolic and the combination of variables showing high relationship to diastolic was conducted. Systolic turned out to have relationship with total cholesterol, triglyceride, obesity (fat rate), income status, education, exercise. And diastolic was related to HDL-c, total cholesterol, tryglyceride, obesity (BMI), education, smoking, alcohol. From this results, it could be seen that the combination of variables which have high relationship to systolic and diastolic have different patterns. Lastly, the investigation on what relationships exist between serum lipids and demographic variables/lifestyle variables was conducted. It turned out that HDL-c had high relationship with age, education, income status, alcohol, and that all of serum lipids (total cholesterol, triglyceride, HDL) were shown to have high relationship with income status, education, age, exercise. From these results, it could be seen that the demographic variables were more influential both on HDL and on all of serum lipids than lifestyle variables were.
Arteriosclerosis* ; Blood Pressure ; Cholesterol ; Education ; Humans ; Incheon ; Life Style ; Male ; Obesity ; Physical Examination ; Risk Factors* ; Smoke ; Smoking ; Triglycerides

PURPOSE: This study was conducted to identify comprehensive predictors of fatigue in cancer patients. METHODS: One hundred ten cancer patients visiting in-patient or out-patient clinics of a university hospital located in Incheon participated in this study. RESULTS: The hematologic indicators (WBC and Hemoglobin) were significant for explaining fatigue. The psychological factors of fatigue were statistically significant. Both anxiety and depression, included as psychological factors, were significant in explaining fatigue in cancer patients. The influence of physical factors on fatigue was also statistically significant. Among the variables included as physical factors, pain, nausea/vomiting/anorexia, and sleep disturbance were significant whereas, dyspnea was not significant. The influence of the daily activity factor on fatigue was statistically significant. Among the variables included as daily activity factors, regular exercise or not and the usual activity level were significant in explaining fatigue of cancer patients, while the level of rest was not statistically significant. CONCLUSIONS: From the study results fatigue of cancer patients appeared to be influenced by multidimensional factors, such as physiological, physical, psychological, and activity related factors.
Activities of Daily Living ; Adaptation, Physiological ; Adult ; Aged ; Fatigue/etiology/*nursing ; Female ; Health Status ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Models, Nursing ; Multivariate Analysis ; Neoplasms/complications/*nursing ; Sick Role ; Sickness Impact Profile

PURPOSE: The purpose of the study were to examine the nutritional status of severe brain injury adult patients in critical period, and to compare the nutritional states before and after tube feeding. METHODS: Data from 19 patients admitted to the SICU in a university hospital due to severe brain injury were analyzed. Nutritional states were measured by anthropometric and blood biochemical indicators. RESULTS: MAC and MAMC were significantly decreased only at 7 days after admission compared with those on the day of admission. TSF was significantly decreased from 7 days to 14 days after admission. Fat rate was significantly decreased from 3 days to 14 days after admission. Hb was significantly decreased only at 3 days after admission. Albumin was significantly decreased from 3 days to 14 days after admission. However, lymphocyte was significantly increased at 14 days after admission. TSF and Albumin became significantly worse even after initiating tube feeding. CONCLUSIONS: Nutritional status of severe brain injury patients in SICU became worse after admission whichever indicators were adopted to evaluate nutritional status, anthropometric or blood biochemical indicators, and became worse even after initiating tube feeding.
Adult ; Brain ; Brain Injuries ; Critical Period (Psychology) ; Enteral Nutrition ; Humans ; Lymphocytes ; Nutrition Assessment ; Nutritional Status ; Tosyl Compounds

PURPOSE: This study was conducted to develop a comprehensive cognitive rehabilitation program that can be easily applied to brain injured patients by family members or nurses in community or hospital settings. METHODS: A Systemic literature review design was used. Thirty-three related studies were reviewed. RESULT: Based on the results of the literature review, the training tasks for attention were designated to enhancing 4 hierarchical areas, i.e., focused, selective, alternating, and divided attention. On the other hand, the memory rehabilitation tasks mainly consisted of mnemonic skills, such as the association method which helps patients memorize given information by linking together common attributes, the visual imagery method, and self-instruction method. The problem solving rehabilitation program included a task of games or plays which stimulated the patients' curiosity and interest. The training tasks for problem solving were to encourage the process of deriving reasonable solutions for a problematic situation resembling real problems that the patients were faced with in their everyday life. CONCLUSION: It is expected that the cognitive rehabilitation program developed from this study could help patients having difficulty in their every day life, due to a reduced cognitive ability resulting from brain injury, to effectively adapt to every day life.
Problem Solving ; Memory ; Humans ; *Cognitive Therapy ; Cognition Disorders/etiology/*rehabilitation ; Brain Injuries/complications/nursing/*rehabilitation

This study was performed to evaluate the effect of 7-week comprehensive health promotion program for RA patients (CHPPRA) on changes in pain and depression. In addition, it was also examined that this effect was generated by changes in patients' health promoting strategies (positive self-image, positive thinking, problem solving, communication, pain management, stress management, exercise, and knowledge about RA) learned through CHPPRA. Twenty-eight out-patients of RA clinic in a university hospital participated for this study. The results are as followers. Changes in exercise, self-concept, positive thinking, problem solving, depression, and pain management were significant predictors to explain relieving pain level. Since all of these variables had positive standardized beta weights (betas), it can be interpreted that increasing level of these health promoting strategies may induce pain improvement. Changes in positive thinking, communication skill, exercise, self-concept, pain management, and knowledge about the disease were significant predictors to explain positive change in depression. Since all of the significant variables except the change in knowledge about the disease had positive standardized beta weights (betas), it can be interpreted that increasing level of these health promoting strategies may induce improving depression level. However, our results showed that the higher level of the knowledge about the disease was, the worse depression was.
Arthritis, Rheumatoid ; Depression* ; Health Education ; Health Promotion* ; Humans ; Outpatients ; Pain Management ; Problem Solving ; Thinking ; Weights and Measures

The purpose of this study was to clarify the dynamic relationships among risk factors of arteriosclerosis and to develop and examine a model which could explain this relationship clearly. Data were collected from medical records of 400 male clients who visited a university hospital located in Inchon for physical examinations, from May 1996 to December 1996. Data were analyzed using the LISREL (Linear Structural Relationship) 8 program. To test the fitness of the hypothesized model, chi-square, RMSR (root mean square residual), GFI (goodness of fit index), CN (critical number) and Q-plot were used. Most of the fitness measurements, except the chi-square showed that the hypothesized model complimented the real data. According to the results, there were trends that obesity and hyperlipidemia were prevalent in heavier smokers, higher alcohol intakers, and groups who excercised less. Also, hypertension was more prevalent in older age, higher alcohol intaker, and higher serum lipid level groups. In contrast to the hypothesis, alcohol intake did not significantly affect serum lipid levels. This might be due to the serum lipid measurements (total cholesterol and trigryceride) used in this study to estimate hyperlipidemia. The direct effect of smoking on hypertension was not significant. However, the total effect of smoking on the hypertension was significant since indirect effects of smoking on hypertension, such as obesity and hyperlipidemia, were significant. The total effect of obesity on hypertension was significant since the indirect effect of obesity on hypertension via hyperlipidemia was significant, although the direct effect of smoking on hypertension was not significant. The degree of explaining hyperlipidemia with smoking, exercise, and obesity was high (60%), however, the degree of explaining obesity with age, smoking, alcohol intake, and exercise was very low (7%). On the basis of these results, high risk factors of arteriosclerosis such as hypertension, hyperlipidemia, or obesity are either directly or indirectly correlated each other. Therefore, it is difficult to predict outcomes for increasing or decreasing the risk factors by simply modulating a factor. Smoking, alcohol, and exercise both directly and indirectly affected major risk factors of arteriosclerosis. Therefore, correcting these variables is required to decrease risk factors. Finally, the relationship among other risk factors which have been known to be related with arteriosclerosis (diet, stress or hereditary) should be clarified in further studies.
Arteriosclerosis* ; Cholesterol ; Humans ; Hyperlipidemias ; Hypertension ; Incheon ; Male ; Medical Records ; Obesity ; Physical Examination ; Risk Factors* ; Smoke ; Smoking

PURPOSE: This study was conducted to examine the relationships between the recurrence of pneumothorax with demographic and health-related risk factors. METHODS: Demographic factors (age and gender) and health-related risk factors (Body Mass Index, smoking, exercise, stress, fatigue, and morbidity from colds) were measured from 60 patients admitted to two acute care institutions due to pneumothorax. RESULTS: The study results showed significant differences in factors such as height and minutes of performing exercise per week, between the first occurrence and recurrence groups. However, other risk factors did not show significant differences between the two groups. CONCLUSION: Prevention of recurrences is important for the treatment and management of pneumothorax. More studies are required to accumulate empirical evidence for health-related risk factors and pneumothorax recurrence, as the relationship between all factors and recurrence were not obtained by the study results.
Demography ; Fatigue ; Humans ; Pneumothorax ; Recurrence ; Risk Factors ; Smoke ; Smoking

Retinal pigment epithelial cells(RPE) from a monolayer on the outer portion of sensory retina and have important physiologic functions that include solute transport, phagocytiosis and digestion of membrances shed from photoreceptor outer segments, and drug detoxication. Recently, transplantation of normal RPE has been proposed as a potential therapeutic modality in the surgical management of subretinal neovascularization in age related macular degeneration(ARMD). The viability of RPE at the time of transplantation is important for a good result after transplantation. This viability can be influenced by the period and environmental conditions of storage after harvest.In this study, the influence of these two factors on the viability was evaluated under controlling other remaining factors in vitro. And limitation of masimal time and optimal environmental conditions of storage were investigated.From November 1997 to February 1998, RPE cell sheets from six donor eyeballs for corneal transplantation in the department of ophthalmology of Severance Hospital were harvested and stored in -70degrees C, 4degrees C, or room temperature condotion. The viability of RPE cells at 0, 24 and 48 hours after havest was assessed and compared statistically.The viability was highest at 4degrees C condition. During storage, the viability was about 95% at 24 hours for and decreased abruptly to below 90% at 48 hours. Therefore, RPE cells for transplantation are to be stored at 4degrees C condition and transplantation should be performed within 24 hours after harvest.
Corneal Transplantation ; Digestion ; Epithelial Cells* ; Humans* ; Macular Degeneration ; Ophthalmology ; Retina ; Retinaldehyde* ; Tissue Donors*

The purpose of this study was to use meta-analysis to analyze result of 17 studies which investigated the effects of integrated programs, and 11 studies which examined the effects of exercise programs on pain, depression, and disability. The 28 studies analyzed in this work were selected from the following sources: MEDLINE Search, bibliographies of related studies, main academic journals of nursing in Korea, and journals on arthritis issues. For the analysis of the data, homogeneity of effect sizes which were calculated based on data in the 28 studies was tested and its average effect size was computed by using meta analysis software package which was developed by Song(1992, 1998). the results can be summarized as follows: 1) Homogeneity tests were conducted on integrated programs on pain. In the preliminary homogeneity tests on effect size of all 17 studies, no homogeneity was found. When homogeneity tests on the effect size of the remaining 15 studies were performed, excluding two studies which had extremely larger effect size compared to other studies, the 15 studies were found to be homogeneous(Q=16.38, p=.23). The obtained average effect size, D(Mean Standardized Difference Between Means), was .25. When homogeneity tests on effect size on pain was conducted for the exercise programs, effect size for all nine studies wee found to be homogeneous(Q=7.42, p=.49) and the average effect size D=.30. Therefore, Hypothesis 1 was rejected from the results, that an average effect size of the integrated programs in pain was not significantly different from that of the exercise programs in pain. 2) Since only two studies investigated the effect of exercise programs n depression, comparison between the average effect size of integrated programs on depression could not be tested. Thereby, only the average effect size of integrated programs in depression was obtained. Eight studies wee tested to be positive on the homogeneity of effect sizes(Q=18.31, p=.02) at alpha <.01 and its average effect size was D=.11. 3) For the analysis of integrated program on disability, 13 studies, except for four which had an extremely large effect size compared to the others were found to be homogeneous at alpha <.01(Q=22.30, p=.04) and the average effect size on disability was D=.16. for analysis of the exercise programs on disability, eight studies, except for one which had an extremely large effect size compared to others, were found to be homogeneous(Q=7.87, p=.34) and the average effect size on disability was D=.60. Therefore, Hypothesis 3 was accepted from the results that an average effect size of exercise programs n disability was significantly larger than that of integrated programs in disability.
Arthritis* ; Depression ; Korea ; Nursing

BACKGROUND: Quinidine appeared to increase serum digoxin levels when given with quinidine. Therefore elevated serum digoxin concentrations and clinical toxicity have been reported in patient receiving quinidine. Currently, Bayesian method which estimates the most probable parameters of the drug for each patient from population parameters data is useful approach for adjusting digoxin dosage. To increase the accuracy of Bayesian method, it is desirable to use population parameters of Korean. Therefore we evaluated the effect of quinidine on digoxin clearance in Korea. METHOD: Patient's records from 19 adult cardiac disease without CHF having normal renal and liver function from Seoul National University of Hospital respectively wre evaluated. Digoxin pharmacokinetic parameters, CL and Vd, were obtained from serum concentration of digoxin of single and combined therapy at each steady-state by using bayesian method. RESULTS: This study show that quinidine reduced the total body clearance of digoxin from 2.39+/-0.17 to 1.51+/-0.08ml/min/kg(p<0.05) and reduced the digoxin volume of distribution from 8.57+/-0.29 to 4.98+/-0.19L/kg(p<0.05). This results show that digoxin dosage reduced to 40-50% in Korean, if quinidine therapy is initiated.
Adult ; Bayes Theorem ; Digoxin* ; Drug Interactions ; Heart Diseases ; Humans ; Korea ; Liver ; Pharmacokinetics ; Quinidine* ; Seoul