PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to identify the effects of a physical exercise program using elastic bands in rural area women. METHOD: This study adopted a pre-post test design. The subjects were 89 rural area women who were selected from four community health care centers. The physical exercise program was executed 30 times for 10 weeks (3 times a week) from August 23 to October 31, 2003. RESULTS: There was a significant difference in the attitude of physical exercise (t=-5.517, p=.000). In the degree of joint pain, there were significant differences in the flextion and extension of the shoulder joint (t=2.557, p=.020; t=5.625, p=.000), and there was a significant difference in the flextion of the knee joint (t=4.747, 0=.000) but there was no significant difference in the extension of the knee joint (t=1.795, p=.083). CONCLUSION: Physical exercise programs need to be implemented and spread continuously.
Arthralgia* ; Community Health Services ; Evaluation Studies as Topic ; Exercise* ; Female ; Humans ; Knee Joint ; Shoulder Joint

PURPOSE: This study was done to develop a sexual health education program for unmarried mothers that were intended to provide the correct sexual knowledge, to help them establish positive sexual perception and to improve sexual health. The program was applied and its effect was evaluated. METHOD: One group pretest-posttest quasi-experimental research design was applied to evaluate the effect of a sexual health education program unmarried mothers. The research team developed a 34 hour program of 16 units, where the basic schemes were human development, relationships, personal skills, sexual behavior, sexual health, and society & culture. We applied the program to 32 unmarried mothers in the Institute for unmarried mothers in Gangwon-do, Korea from April 19, 2004 to June 14, 2004. RESULT: After the application of an 8 week sexual health education program, the subjects significantly showed a better perception of self-efficiency, self-esteem, sexual knowledge and sexual behavior than before the program. CONCLUSION: The sexual health education program for unmarried mother in this study was effective on improving sexual perception and promoting sexual health behavior.
Education* ; Gangwon-do ; Health Education ; Human Development ; Humans ; Illegitimacy* ; Korea ; Reproductive Health* ; Research Design ; Sexual Behavior ; Sexuality ; Single Person*

PURPOSE: This study was to investigate the types and seriousness of pregnancy-related physical and psychological symptoms among pregnant couples. METHOD: Subjects consisted of 77 pregnant couples at one hospital in Seoul, Korea. The pregnant couples had not been diagnosed with any medical complications. Data were analyzed by the SPSS WIN program. RESULT: In the degree of physical and psychological symptoms of pregnancy experienced by subjects, the mean score of perceived physical symptoms (2.40, 1.86) was higher than the mean score of psychological symptoms (2.13, 1.83) for both pregnant women and their spouses. In the couple's difference of physical and psychological symptoms of pregnancy experienced by subjects, there were not statistically significant differences in the physical symptoms: "I have hemorrhoids" (t=1.91, p=.06), "My body weight decreased" (t=1.78, p=.08), "I have colds more often" (t=1.77, p=.08), and "I became more active than ordinary times" (t=1.99, p=.05) or in the psychological symptoms: "I am more elated than ordinary times" (t=.83, p=.41), and "I feel inferior" (t=1.62, p=.11). Therefore, these symptoms are coincidental between couples. In the difference of physical and psychological symptoms of pregnancy experienced by subjects according to general characteristics, there were not significant differences. In the relationship between physical and psychological symptoms experienced by subjects, there were statistically significant correlations between subject's physical symptoms and psychological symptoms (r=.54, p< .001; r=.78, p< .001). CONCLUSION: Physical and psychological symptoms of pregnancy experienced by pregnant couples are an issue for nurses who perform an important role in the care of pregnant women and their spouses
Body Weight ; Family Characteristics* ; Female ; Humans ; Korea ; Pregnancy* ; Pregnant Women ; Seoul ; Spouses

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to provide fundamental materials for improving school health promotion programs by investigating school nurses' awareness of the importance, performance level, and perceived competence level of school health promotion programs in Gangwon-do. METHODS: The subjects of this study were 173 school nurses who were working in Gangwon-do. The instrument for this study was a scale for awareness of importance, performance level, and perceived competence level. Data were collected on December 15, 2007 and analyzed using SPSS 13.0 for Windows. RESULTS: The mean score of awareness of importance was 3.51 (range: 1~4). The mean score of performance level and the mean score of perceived competence level were 3.35 (range: 1~4) and 3.29 (range: 1~4), respectively. The younger school nurses were (F=4.380, p=.014), the higher their awareness of importance was. The performance level was lowest in high school nurses (F=5.013, p=.008). There were significant correlations between awareness of importance, performance level, and perceived competence level in school nurses. CONCLUSION: In order to improve the effectiveness of school health promotion programs, training and education programs for school nurses' competencies and technical support systems for school nurses should be provided.
Education ; Gangwon-do ; Health Promotion ; Humans ; Mental Competency* ; School Health Services*

With the improvement of the nutritive conditions and the influence of overflowing informations and various cultural aspects imported from foreign countries, children develop more rapidly in the bodily and sexual growth. This study was conducted to suggest some ideas useful in planning sexual education program in elementary schools and ultimate aim is to promote sexual health. The subject of this survey consisted of 802 fourth, fifth, sixth graders from 6 schools in Seoul, Hongchon and Chunchon. Major findings are summarized as follows. 1. The degree of sexual knowledge of children showed low averaged 26.96 and the degree of sexual attitude showed usual averaged 55.70. 2.With the respect to the demographic characteristics, there were stastically significant differences in sexual knowledge, according to children's grade(F=64.031, p=. 000), father's education(t=-2.504, p=.013), experience of menarche(t=3.470, p=.001), experience of sex-related question to their parents(t=-.6054, p=.000), experience of sex-related question to the teachers (t= -3.385, p=.001), experience of sexual education(t=8.607, p=.000) and in sexual attitude, there were stastically significant differences according to children's grade (F=6.588, p=.001), experience of sex- related question to their parents(t=-5.387, p=.000), experience of sex-related question to the teachers(t=-2.845, p=.005), experience of sexual education(t=5.070, p=.000). 3. The level of sexual knowledge and sexual attitude of childrens' was correlated at significant level(r=.354, p=.000) The findings of this study indicated that variety of the systematic sexual education program suitable for the stage of children should be developed and family, society, contry's higher concern and enlightment are required.
Child ; Education ; Gangwon-do ; Humans ; Reproductive Health ; Seoul ; Child Health

The purpose of this study was to analyze and identify the higher-grade primary school children's needs for sexual education. We got the data with open question from 481 children from March to July 1999. We analyzed them according to the framework suggested by the Sex Information and Education Council of USA. The framework involves the six domains such as human development, relationship, personal skills, sexual behavior, sexual health, and society & culture. In the analysis of need for sexual education according to domain, need for human development was highest (79.2 %), after that followed society & culture (8.3 %), sexual health (5.8%), sexual behavior (3.6%), and relationships (3.1%). There was no need for personal skills. By topics, there were needs for puberty (38.0%), reproduction (32.5%), gender roles (6.0%), body image (4.9%), sexual abuse (2.4%) and reproductive health (2.4%). Girls and boys all mostly wanted to know human development 41.0 % and 38.2 % each. Society & culture (3.4 %), sexual behaviour (2.7%), sexual health (2.6%), relationship (2.4%) were domains selected by boys. Girls wanted to know society & culture (4.9%) and 'sexual health (3.2%). Comparing by grade, fourth, fifth and sixth grade children are commonly interested in development, society & culture. Fourth grade children scarcely show attention on the relationship, sexual behaviour and sexual health; meanwhile sixth grade children would like to know sexual behaviour and sexual health. When their grade became higher, they would like to know more precise, concrete and deep information. We suggest that the textbook/guidebook for sexual health for the higher-grade primary school children should be developed considering the sex and grade.
Adolescent ; Body Image ; Child* ; Education* ; Female ; Gender Identity ; Human Development ; Humans ; Puberty ; Reproduction ; Reproductive Health ; Sex Offenses ; Sexual Behavior ; Child Health

PURPOSE: This study was to identify predictors of sexual function in gynecologic cancer patients. METHODS: The participants were 154 patients treated at a university medical center in A city, Korea. The data collection was performed through a structured questionnaire from July to December, 2010. The instruments used in this study were Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI) perceived health status scale, Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance status, body image, and depression. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Mann-Whitney test, Kruskal-Wallis test and stepwise multiple regression with the SPSS 18.0. RESULTS: The mean score of perceived health status was 8.42 and sexual function was 8.42. The lowest score among sexual function was lubrication. The scores of sexual function was significantly different by age, job, marital status, period after diagnosis of cancer and diagnosis. There were significant correlations between sexual function, perceived health status, ECOG performance, body image and depression. In multiple regression analysis, predictors were identified as ECOG performance, age, diagnosis and period after diagnosis of cancer (Adj.R2=.28). The most powerful predictor of female sexual function was ECOG performance (19.0%). CONCLUSION: The above findings indicate that it is necessary to develop a more effective and personalized sexual function improvement program for gynecologic cancer patient.
Academic Medical Centers ; Body Image ; Data Collection ; Depression ; Female ; Humans ; Korea ; Lubrication ; Marital Status ; Surveys and Questionnaires

PURPOSE: This study was to analyze the characteristics and effect size of intervention studies that used acupressure for the control of chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting (CINV). METHODS: Nine electronic databases including Korea Education Research and Information, the National Assembly Library, KISS, Korea Med, NDSL, PubMed, EBSCO, Cochrane library, and OVID (to December, 2009) were searched. Thirteen studies of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) or controlled clinical trials (CCTs) were selected. Data were analyzed by SPSS/WIN 18.0. RESULTS: Overall effect size of acupressure was moderate (0.684). Nausea had a moderate effect size (0.770) and nausea and vomiting had a high effect size (0.899). Acupressure using sticker needles had a high effect size (1.368) among finger acupressure, si-acupuncture, and wrist band treatment. CONCLUSION: This study suggests that acupressure using sticker needles on the spots of nei-guan, chok-samni and hap-kok can reduce the levels of nausea and vomiting in cancer patients receiving chemotherapy. For improving the reliability of the meta-analysis results, further randomized controlled trials with better study methodology are needed.
Acupressure ; Electronics ; Electrons ; Fingers ; Humans ; Clinical Trial ; Korea ; Nausea ; Needles ; Vomiting ; Wrist

PURPOSE: To suggest ideas that promote sexual health and useful in planning sex education programs for middle school students. METHOD: This study surveyed 661 middle school students from three schools in Seoul and Chunchon. RESULTS: The average degree of sexual knowledge was 31.5, while attitude was 32.5. There were statistically significant differences in sexual knowledge in relation to: coeducational environment (t=-5.776, p=.000), grade (F=36.351, p=.000), father's age (t=-2.510, p=.012), mother's age (t=-2.146, p=.032), economical status (F=3.264, p=.039), source of sexual knowledge (F=8.484, p=.000), the degree of interest in the opposite sex (F=16.871, p=.000), sexual discussions with parents (t=3.556, p=.000), sexual discussions with teachers (t=2.847, p=.005), and sex education (t=2.148, p=.032). Likewise, stastically significant differences in sexual attitudes were linked to: coeducational environment (t=-7.646, p=.000), subject's grade (F=32.743, p=.000), parental marriage status (t=2.338, p=.020), mother's age (t=-2.048, p=.041), source of sexual knowledge (F=6.917, p=.000), the degree of interest in the opposite sex (F=15.559, p=.000), sexual discussions with parents (t=3.908, p=.000), and sexual discussions with teachers (t=2.946, p=.003). The students level of sexual knowledge and attitude was significantly correlated (r=.686, p=.000). CONCLUSION: This study indicates a variety of systematic sexual education programs are needed for middle school student at home and school.
Education ; Gangwon-do ; Humans ; Marriage ; Parents ; Reproductive Health ; Seoul ; Sex Education ; Child Health

PURPOSE: To identify the agreed opinion of experts on oriental health promotion services and nursing in Korea. METHOD: The study is based on the 3-round Delphi method. As a Delphi panel, a total of 28 people with at least three years of experience in the area of oriental medicine consisted of this. RESULTS: The experts suggested that Yangsaeng, lectures on prevention of CVA, correct understanding of the misuse/abuse of oriental medicine, daily health care, meridian/acupoints massage, and Kigong therapy should be included in the promoting oriental health nursing servies. CONCLUSION: The agreed opinions by the experts on the oriental health promotion services and nursing, can help enhance the understanding of oriental health promotion. The curriculum should be developed further and tested with the development of the Korean oriental nursing intervention methods which is appropriate to Korean culture.
Curriculum ; Delivery of Health Care ; Health Promotion* ; Korea ; Lectures ; Massage ; Medicine, East Asian Traditional ; Nursing*