Objectives: This study investigated changes in toothbrushing in adolescents in response to public health policy changes during coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) focusing on behavioral trends before, during, and after policy enforcement according to socio-demographic subgroups. Methods: Data from the Korean Youth Risk Behavior Survey (2018–2024) were divided into 3 periods: before (2018–2019), during (2020–2022), and after (2023–2024) the implementation of COVID-19 school restrictions. A total of 354 943 middle and high school students were included. The primary outcome variable was self-reported toothbrushing after lunch at school. Multivariable logistic regression was conducted, adjusting for confounders such as sex, academic performance, school level, school type, handwashing, and oral health status (toothache and gum bleeding). Results: The compliance rate for toothbrushing declined significantly during the restriction period across all groups. It varied by sex, school type, school level, health-related behaviors (drinking, smoking, handwashing), and oral health status. Female students, middle schoolers, students in single-sex schools, non-smokers, and those practicing hand hygiene showed higher compliance. After restrictions were lifted, toothbrushing rates improved but remained lower than pre-pandemic levels. Recovery of the toothbrushing rate was observed in most groups, particularly among female students, high schoolers, and those with positive health-related behaviors. However, academic performance and oral health status were not significantly associated with recovery rate in adjusted analyses. Conclusions This study highlights that adolescents’ health behaviors are highly sensitive to environmental and policy changes. Variations in compliance and recovery rates underscore the need for adolescent-centered policies that account for both compliance and recovery, especially during crises such as pandemics.

PURPOSE: Clinical competence among nurses is an essential requirement for the provision of safe and effective patient care. This study aims to classify types of professional quality of life experienced by Korean nurses, and examine the relationship between demographic and professional characteristics and clinical competence among nurses experiencing each type. METHODS: A total of 335 nurses completed questionnaires assessing professional quality of life, clinical competence, and demographic and professional characteristics. Following identification of the underlying factors of professional quality of life, we classified participants into three clusters. RESULTS: There were significant differences in age, marital status, religion, educational status, and position between clusters. Results also revealed that nurses with high compassion satisfaction and low compassion fatigue (burnout, secondary traumatic stress) tended to have higher clinical competence. CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrated that it is possible to directly examine the relationship between professional quality of life level and clinical competence among nurses. Thus, interventions to increase nurses' compassion satisfaction and relieve compassion fatigue are needed, as professional quality of life may affect clinical competence.
Adult ; *Attitude of Health Personnel ; *Clinical Competence ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; Female ; Humans ; Job Satisfaction ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Nurses/*psychology ; *Quality of Life ; Republic of Korea ; *Stress, Psychological ; Young Adult

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to identify factors that influence fatigue in hospitalized women cancer patients receiving chemotherapy. METHODS: The participants were 117 women cancer patients receiving chemotherapy. The instruments used in this study were physical symptoms, mood state, family support, and fatigue scales for patients with cancer. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA, Pearson correlation coefficients and multiple regression with the IBM SPSS 19.0 program. RESULTS: Fatigue showed significant correlation with physical symptoms such as side effects as well as sub-elements of mood status such as anxiety-depression, vitality, anger and family support. Fatigue-anticipating variables were found to be some sub-elements of mood state such as anxiety-depression (beta=.61, t=10.40, p<.001), digestion organ factor (beta=.78, t=2.54, p=.013) and pain/fatigue factor (beta=.86, t=0.43, p=.045). The total variance explained was 69.7%. CONCLUSION: These results showed that the factors affecting fatigue were physical symptoms, and the mood state of hospitalized women cancer patients receiving chemotherapy. The results of this study provided basic materials for a nursing intervention program to reduce fatigue.
Anger ; Digestion ; Drug Therapy* ; Fatigue* ; Female ; Humans ; Nursing ; Weights and Measures

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study to verify the symptom clusters of colorectal cancer patients and also identify the influence of the symptom clusters upon colorectal patient symptom clusters identify acording exper. METHODS: 101 colorectal cancer patients were the subjects of this study. As for a research tool, the global health status/QOL was used including the sub-scales of QLQ-C30. In the functional scales and the symptom scales, the sub-scales of QLQ-C30 and QLQ-CR29 were used. Results: The result of this study shows us there are 7 kinds of symptom clusters. RESULTS: The result of this study shows us there are 7 kinds of symptom clusters, bowel movement problems, abdominal-pelvic problems, feces problems, urination problems, dry mouth-taste problems, side effect problems, and elimination problems. CONCLUSION: Based on the result, the symptom clusters in colorectal cancer patients were confirmed to be influencing the subjects' quality of life and functions. The efficient management of symptom clusters that subjects experience leads to promoting colorectal cancer patients' physical and emotional status, thereby contributing to an improvement in their quality of life.
Classification* ; Colorectal Neoplasms* ; Feces ; Humans ; Quality of Life* ; Urination ; Weights and Measures