• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.50 no.5
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• pp.646-657
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• 2020

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify the quality of sleep in novice and experienced shift work nurses and compare the factors associated with their quality of sleep. Methods: We analyzed the data of 192 and 256 novice and experienced nurses, respectively. The quality of sleep, sleep hygiene, job stress, and fatigue were measured using Insomnia Severity Index, Sleep Hygiene Practice Scale, the Korean Occupational Stress Scale, and Fatigue Severity Scale. Data were analyzed using SPSS 25.0 to calculate descriptive statistics and logistic regression. Results: Sleep quality was lower in experienced nurses (12.55 ± 5.71) than in novice nurses (11.18 ± 5.78). Fatigue was more severe in experienced nurses (4.47 ± 1.13) than in novice nurses (4.23 ± 1.12). In the logistic regression, factors related to sleep quality in novice nurses were sleep hygiene (odds ratio; OR = 1.06, p < .001) and fatigue (OR = 2.49, p < .001). Factors related to sleep quality in the experienced nurses were also sleep hygiene (OR = 1.04, p = .001) and fatigue (OR = 1.53, p = .012). Conclusion: Sleep quality of experienced nurses is lower than those of novice nurses. Factors associated with sleep quality in novice and experienced nurses are equally identified as sleep hygiene and fatigue. Therefore, personal efforts to improve sleep hygiene, such as providing comfortable sleep environment, are needed. Furthermore, organized efforts to decrease fatigue, such as constructing a working environment with a bright light at night and providing a fatigue-decreasing program that includes meditation, are required.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.217-226
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• 2024

Manufacturing workers face increased fatigue and stress due to environmental factors in workplace such as noise and vibration. Addressing this issue requires creating conducive rest spaces; however, the existing conditions of rest spaces in manufacturing workplace are subpar and lack sufficient scholarly evidence. This study investigated the effect of nature-based rest spaces on the physical and emotional recovery from fatigue on manufacturing workers. Three manufacturing complexes with nature-friendly rest spaces were selected, and 63 manufacturing workers participated in the study. The measurement tools included the Multidimensional Fatigue Scale (MFS) for fatigue levels, physiological indicators (blood pressure and heart rate), and emotional indicators (Zuckerman Inventory of Personal Reaction Scale; ZIPERS, Perceived Restorativeness Scale; PRS, Profile of Mood States; POMS and State-Trait Anxiety Inventory; STAI). The study compared recovery levels during a 7-minute rest between a space without plants and a space with natural elements. The results indicated a significant reduction in systolic and diastolic blood pressure of participants in green rest spaces compared with those in conventional rest spaces. Regarding fatigue levels, green rest spaces showed a decrease in systolic blood pressure in the middle-fatigue and high-fatigue groups. Positive feelings increased in green spaces, whereas negative emotions decreased, suggesting that short breaks in nature-friendly environments effectively promote workers' physical and emotional recovery. Furthermore, this study emphasizes the importance of green space in various work environments to promote well-being in workers.

• Journal of muscle and joint health
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.27-50
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• 2001

Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic systemic autoimmune disease. Although the joints are the major loci of the disease activity, fatigue is a common extraarticular symptom that exists in all gradations of rheumatoid arthritis. Fatigue is defined as a subjective sense of generalized tiredness or exhaustion and has multiple dimensions. Therefore fatigue is a common and frequent problem for those with rheumatoid arthritis. In fact, 88-100% of individuals with rheumatoid arthritis experience fatigue. Especially the degree of fatigue is higher in women than men with rheumatoid arthritis. Despite the importance of fatigue among the patients with rheumatoid arthritis, the mechanism that leads to fatigue in rheumatoid arthritis is not completely understood. This study was intended to test and validate a model to predict fatigue in women with rheumatoid arthritis. Especially it was intended to identify the direct and indirect effects of the variables of pain, disability, depression, sleep disturbance, morning stiffness, and symptom duration to fatigue. Data were collected by questionnaires including Multidimensional Assesment of Fatigue(Tack, 1991), numeric scale of pain, graphic scale of joints, Ritchie Articular Index, Korean Health Assessment Questionnaire(Bae, et al., 1998), Inventory of Function Status(Tulman, et al., 1991), Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression, and Korean Sleep Scale(Oh, et al 1998). The sample consisted of 345 women with a mean duration of rheumatoid arthritis for 10.06 years and a mean age of 49.64 years. SPSS win and Win LISREL were used for the data analysis. Structural equation modeling revealed the overall fit of the model. Pain predicted fatigue directly and indirectly through disability, depression, and sleep disturbance. Disability, sleep disturbance predicted fatigue only directly, while depression only indirectly through disability and sleep disturbance. Also morning stiffness and symptom duration predicted fatigue through disability and depression. All predictors accounted for 65% of the variance of fatigue. Depression, pain, and disability predicted sleep disturbance. Depression had reciprocal relationship with disability and they both were predicted by pain directly and indirectly. In summary, pain, depression, disability, sleep disturbance, morning stiffness, and symptom duration contributed to the fatigue of patients with rheumatoid arthritis. The best predictor of fatigue was pain. This finding indicates that the modification of pain, depression, disability, sleep disturbance, morning stiffness could be nursing intervention for relief or prevention of fatigue.

• Annals of Occupational and Environmental Medicine
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• v.35
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• pp.32.1-32.10
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• 2023

Background: Although many studies have been conducted on worker fatigue and sickness absence, the association between fatigue and sickness absence is unclear in Korean workers. This study was conducted to investigate the effect of worker fatigue on future sickness absence. Methods: The study was conducted on workers who received medical check-ups at a university hospital for two consecutive years (2014-2015). During check-ups in the first year, the Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS) was used to assess fatigue levels, and during check-ups in the second year, sickness absence was surveyed to determine whether they had been absent from work due to physical or mental illness during previous 12 months. The χ² test was used to analyze relationships between sociodemographic and occupational characteristics, fatigue levels, and sickness absence. Odds ratios (ORs) were calculated by logistic regression analysis controlled for confounding factors. Results: A total of 12,250 workers were included in the study, and 396 (3.2%) workers experienced more than one day of sickness absence during the study period. Adjusted ORs for sickness absence were 3.35 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 2.64-4.28) in the moderate-fatigue group and 6.87 (95% CI: 4.93-9.57) in the high-fatigue group versus the low-fatigue group. For men in the moderate- and high-fatigue groups, adjusted ORs for sickness absence were 3.40 (95% CI: 2.58-4.48) and 8.94 (95% CI: 6.12-13.07), and for women in the moderate- and high-fatigue groups, adjusted ORs for sickness absence were 2.93 (95% CI: 1.68-5.10) and 3.71 (95% CI: 1.84-7.49), respectively. Conclusions: Worker fatigue is associated with sickness absence during the following 12 months, and this association appears to be stronger for men than women. These results support the notion that sickness absence can be reduced by evaluating and managing work-related fatigue.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.943-957
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• 2014

When subjected to fatigue loading, the main failure mode of partially prestressed concrete (PPC) structure is the fatigue fracture of tensile reinforcement. Therefore, monitoring and evaluation of the steel stresses/strains in the structure are essential issues for structural design and healthy assessment. The current study experimentally investigates the possibility of using fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensors to measure the steel strains in PPC beams in the process of fatigue loading. Six full-scale post-tensioned PPC beams were exposed to fatigue loading. Within the beams, the FBG and resistance strain gauge (RSG) sensors were independently bonded onto the surface of tensile reinforcements. A good agreement was found between the recorded results from the two different sensors. Moreover, FBG sensors show relatively good resistance to fatigue loading compared with RSG sensors, indicating that FBG sensors possess the capability for long-term health monitoring of the tensile reinforcement in PPC structures. Apart from the above findings, it can also be found that during the fatigue loading, there is stress redistribution between prestressed and non-prestressed reinforcements, and the residual strain emerges in the non-prestressed reinforcement. This phenomenon can bring about an increase of the steel stress in the non-prestressed reinforcement.

• Journal of Home Health Care Nursing
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.300-308
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• 2019

Purpose: This study is a descriptive research study to identify the relationship between the experience of verbal abuse, compassion fatigue, and work engagement among nurses in the emergency unit. Methods: Study subjects were 107 nurses working in a university hospital in Gyeonggi-Do. The instruments used were a verbal abuse checklist, a subscale of the Professional Quality of Life Scale used to measure compassion fatigue, and the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale. The data were analyzed using the IBM SPSS version 22.0 program for independent t-test, one-way ANOVA, and Pearson's correlation coefficients. Results: Emergency nurses experienced more verbal abuse and compassion fatigue than nurses in other departments, and the level of work engagement was low. There was a positive correlation between experience of verbal abuse and compassion fatigue and a negative correlation between both of these variables and work engagement. Particularly, verbal abuse appeared in the order of nurses, patients & caregivers, and doctors. This means there were serious problems with communication with nurses. Conclusion: In order to reduce verbal abuse, it is necessary to establish a communication culture of mutual respect between nurses, medical staff, patients & caregivers. Moreover, a compassion fatigue management program is needed to reduce emotional fatigue.

• Journal of East-West Nursing Research
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.42-50
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• 2005

Purpose: The purpose this research was to provide with basic data in the control of the fatiguer found in the patients with fibromyalgia by analysing the factors that predict that. Method: At three university medical center, appointed 245 out-patients diagnosed of fibromyalgia according to the conditions by American College of Rheumatology (1990). The research instruments used in this study were graphic rating scale(Anxiety, sleep disturbance, pain, joint stiffness and depression), physical activity, the number of tender points, life satisfaction and Self-efficacy scale. In data analysis, SPSS 12.0 program was utilized and data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Pearson's correlation coefficient and multiple regression. Result: The factors that predict the fatigue of patients with fibromyalgia were sleep disturbance, life satisfaction, pain, joint stiffness, illness duration, and anxiety which explained 50.1% of the fatigue. Conclusion: It has been confirmed that the regression equation model of this research may serve as a fatigue prediction factors in patients with fibromyalgia.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.81-85
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• 2012

Objectives: To describe a clinical case of a patient with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) who was cured using indirect moxibustion. Methods: A male patient with severe CFS was treated with mainly indirect moxibustion (KI1, CV4 and CV8). The clinical outcome was observed by self-reporting, both visual analogue scale (VAS) and numerical rating scale (NRS). Results: The patient's symptoms matched the criteria for CFS diagnosis. His symptom differentiation was the "Yang deficiency of spleen and kidney". The fatigue feeling and related-symptoms were radically reduced by 14-day treatment. The VAS and NRS score changed from 8.5 and 70 to 3.5 and 35, respectively. Conclusions: This case report provides information on the potential of moxibustion therapy and its application for CFS and fatigue-associated disorders.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.58-64
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• 2008

Large-scale tests of welded tubular K-joint sunder balanced in-plane bending braces were carried out to observe the fatigue behavior of the API 2W Gr.60 steel plate produced by POSCO. Toe grinding and weld profiling were used to improve the fatigue life of a tubular K-joint. The effects of the steel grade and chord wall thickness on the fatigue life were also investigated. The present results were compared with the UK DEn design curve.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.25 no.11
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• pp.1887-1894
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• 2001

The effects of carbon black on the material properties and the fatigue life of the carbon-black filled natural rubbers were investigated. Different kinds of carbon blacks resulted in different fatigue lives, hysteresis, and critical J-values. It was noticed that the hysteresis was inversely proportional to the difference between DBPA and CTAB, and the critical J-value was almost the same regardless of the length of a precrack. In addition, different kinds of carbon blacks resulted in different fracture morphologies, and micro-scale and macro-scale roughnesses. The critical J-value was proportional to the micro-scale roughness. and it seemed relate to the size distribution of carbon black particles. By reviewing all the experimental data. it was finally noticed that the logarithmic value of the fatigue life could be linearly expressed by a multiplication of the critical J-value and the logarithmic value of the hysteresis.