Background : Tai Chi is suitable for most Chinese immigrants, because it is an ancient fitness exercise with Chinese cultural background. Research has suggested that Tai Chi improves functional fitness and reduces stress and anxiety.Purpose : The purpose of this study was to evaluate the short and long effects of a 3-month Tai Chi exercise program on the functional fitness and subjective health status of older Japanese returnees from China.Design : Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT).Method : After obtaining informed consent, 54 participants (63.5±3.7 yrs) were randomly allocated into either an intervention group (n=27) or a control group (n=27). The intervention program included 60-minutes of Tai Chi and a health talk, etc. The program was offered once a week for a 3-month period with home-based Tai Chi performed daily. Interview surveys included items such as demography, self-related health, habits of exercise, history of falls, etc. The participants also underwent evaluations for functional fitness. Data were collected at baseline, 12 weeks, and a 3-month follow-up. A description of the intervention group's impressions about Tai Chi was added at the end of the program. Repeated measures of analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Cochran's Q-test were taken to test for changes in outcome variable.Results : There were no significant differences in any of the baseline characteristics between the intervention and control groups. At the program completion and 3-month follow-up, the intervention group showed the following : (1) a significantly better performance in functional fitness : time interaction for one leg standing time with eyes opened (P<0.01) and closed (P<0.01), functional reach (P<0.01), tandem walking (P<0.01), Timed Up & Go (P<0.05), and walking speed (P<0.01) ; (2) significantly better improvement in self-rated health (P<0.01), life satisfaction (P<0.01), and concern about own health (P<0.01) ; (3) As to impressions, 85.2% responded “We feel that Tai Chi is an intimate activity in our lives” ; and 63.0% reported “We are attached to Tai Chi, and we do Tai Chi to restore confidence in our health” in the intervention group. By comparison, no significant changes in control group were observed.Conclusion : These results showed that Tai Chi is effective for functional fitness and subjective health status in older Japanese returnees from China. This study also provides a valuable example of investigating the significance of culturally relevant interventions for Chinese immigrants, especially the aged.

Health problems caused by age-related hearing loss can not be ignored, and elderly hearing screening that aimed to detect early and intervene early is of importance. As one of the main screening tools, elderly hearing screening scales are rarely used in China, so the paper mainly reviewed the development and application of hearing screening scales for elderly and provided a reference for future research and clinical application.

Frailty is an important problem influencing the health of elderly.Frailty syndrome assessment is helpful to identify the frailty status and to enhance the targeted intervention.This paper mainly reviewed the research progress of frailty syndrome tools for the elderly abroad,so as to provide evidence for developing specific frailty syndrome assessment tool for Chinese elderly people.

Objective To summarize the main results and characters of the research literature by reviewing systematically and comprehensively,we get an overall awareness of the current status of the nursing needs of the aged at home and discover the deficiency.Consequently,we provide evidence to improve the nursing services for the aged at home.Methods We systematically searched CNKI (1979-2014.5),CBM (1978-2014.5)and VIP (1989-2014.5).According to the including criteria and excluding criteria,we screened the literature twice.Main results and characters of the literature were described.Results A total of 975 articles were included.The first literature were published in 1986.From 2006,the amount of the literature increased annually.42.36％ (413/975)of the research types were descriptive research.The contents of the literature mainly focused on the need of comprehensive nursing services,such as community nursing services [37.44％(365/975)];home care [20.10％(196/975)];long-term care [10.26％(100/975)].The overall quality of the hterature was not high.Experimental research and descriptive research were implemented mostly in developed areas.The 46.97％(458/975) of the first authors worked in hospitals.Conclusions There is a small quantity of literature published with low quality.Questionnaire with comprehensive items describing needs demanded by the aged are required.We should put an eye on the aged living in undeveloped areas or with recognition impairment.Meanwhile,depending on the general hospital,we should carry out high-quality experimental research,as well as exploring multidisciplinary model.

Objective To explore the effects of Gantaikang on porcine serum-induced liver fibrosis in rats. Methods Hepatic fibrosis was induced in rats by intraperitoneal injection of 0.5ml porcine serum twice a week. Gantaikang was simultaneously administered intragastrically to rats in the intervention group at dose of 0.27g/kg?bw for 7 weeks. Then blood was collected, and serum levels of hyaluronic acid(HA), laminin(LN) and precollagen III(PCIII) were measured. Liver tissues was removed, and the pathologic changes of liver were observed by routine, Masson and James staining. The semi-quantitive analysis of collagen and reticulin in the liver tissues were performed. Results Gantaikang could effectively counteract the increase of HA, LN and PCIII level in serum, and attenuate hepatic collagen and reticulin proliferation induced by porcine serum in rats. Conclusion The results suggested that Gantaikang could, to a certain extent, prevent and attenuate immunologic hepatic fibrosis induced by porcine serum in rats.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effects of Zhenqing Capsule (ZQC), a compound traditional Chinese herbal medicine, in treating type 1 diabetic rats with peripheral neuropathy. METHODS: Type 1 diabetes was induced by caudal vein injection of high-dose streptozotocin in 30 male Wistar rats. The thirty diabetic rats were randomly divided into three groups: ZQC-treated group, untreated group and aminoguanidine-treated group. Another group of 10 rats was taken as normal control. After 10-week treatment, the changes of body weight and fasting plasma glucose level were measured, and the serum MDA level and the changes of neurological electrophysiology were analyzed. The samples of sciatic nerve in diabetic rats were taken for morphological observation. RESULTS: The MDA level in type 1 diabetic rats was notably reduced in ZQC-treated group as compared with the untreated group (P<0.01). Compared with the untreated group, ZQC could improve the electrophysiology of sciatic nerve including conduction velocity (P<0.05), latency (P<0.01) and wave amplitude (P<0.05). The nerve myelin staining results showed that segmental demyelination of the nerve fibers in ZQC-treated group was not as serious as that in the untreated group. CONCLUSION: ZQC can obviously ameliorate the neurological electrophysiological function and the pathological changes of peripheral nerve in type 1 diabetic rats through the removal of free radical and resistance of lipid peroxidation.

Objective To explore the prevalence and relationship of urinary incontinence and depression among elderly female patients.Methods A total of 118 female patients older than 60 years old were interviewed face to face.The prevalence of urinary incontinence and depression were estimated using the International Consultation on Incontinence Questionnaire Urinary Incontinence Short Form-Chinese (ICIQ-SF-Chinese) and Geriatric Depression Scale-15 (GDS-15).Linear regression and Spearman correlation were used to identify the relationship between urinary incontinence and depression.Results Urinary incontinence was found in 27.1％ (32/118),and depression was in 39.0％ (46/118) of the survey population.Urinary incontinence with depression was found in 13.6％ (16/118) of the overall population.Urinary incontinence was positively correlated with depression,r=0.211,P＜0.05.The frequency of entertainment and urinary incontinence were significantly related to depression symptoms,P＜0.05.Conclusions Urinary incontinence appears to possess an additive effect on incidence of depression,which seriously affects both physical and mental health of patients.Clinicians should give patients health education and intervention measures at early stage.

Objective:To probe the implement of inquiry -based teaching in nursing ethics. Method:105 nursing students attended the innovation of inquiry-based teaching for Nursing Ethics. Results:88. 5% nursing students satisfied with innovation of teaching;82 . 9% nursing studentsethics awareness was enhanced largely in understanding for nursing ethics;68 . 6% nursing students considered that their ability for ethical thinking has been enhanced largely;93 . 3% nurs-ing students thought that nursing ethics was important. Different inquiry methods for nursing students led to different level of analysis ability for ethic cases(P﹤0. 001). Conclusions:It's necessary to perform the innovation of inquiry-based teaching, promoting the student's activity, focus on learning process and enhancing the students comprehensive ability.

Objective To test the reliability and validity of the self-assessed questionnaire of the elderly health care needs.Methods Based on the Zuluaga-Raysmith model, the initial questionnaire was formulated by literature reviewing and interviews.Through Delphi experts consultation, a questionnaire containing 12 factors, 61 items was constructed.A total of 750 elderly residents were investigated to test the reliability and validity of the questionnaire.Results The effective rate of questionnaires was 88.67％ (665/750).The total Cronbach α was 0.871.The test-retest reliability of all the items were all greater than 0.75.The item-level content validity index were all greater than 0.80.The scale-level content validity index was 0.95.14 factors were extracted by exploratory factor analysis, explaining 66.653％ of the total variance.Conclusions The elderly health care needs self-assessed questionnaire is comprehensive with good stability, which can be used in a multi-center, large sample research.The research may help to get a deep understanding of health care needs of the elderly as well as influencing factors.

Objective To investigate the prevalence of pulmonary acariasis among the employees working on traditional Chinese medicinal materials and observe the effect of treatment. Methods History inquiry, detection of mites in sputum, blood examination for eosinophils and specific antibodies, x-ray chest film were carried out for 327 workers involving in traditional Chinese medicinal materials. Mites were found in sputum in 121 persons who were then treated with metronidazole, twice a day with a daily dosage of 0.8g for seven days as a course of treatment. Two courses were conducted with an interval of 7-10 day. Prevalence and morbidity in different groups of occupation, age, and sex were analyzed. Results The overall infection rate of mites in sputum was 37.0% (121/327) with an average morbidity of 12.5% (41/327). Among the four types of worker investigated, the highest infection rate (51.8%), and morbidity (18.6%) were in those working in transfer warehouse; the second highest infection rate (40.7%) and morbidity (15.7%) were in employees in factory of Chinese traditional medicine. Both groups showed a significant difference with others(?2inf=11.36,P0.05). After treatment with metronidazole, 88.4% showed negative in sputum examination for mites and the efficacy of the treatment for pulmonary acariasis was 92.3%. Conclusions Employees engaged in traditional Chinese medicinal materials are one of the groups at the highest risk of pulmonary acariasis. Metronidazole is effective in treating the infection.