• Korean Journal of Occupational Health Nursing
• /
• v.29 no.4
• /
• pp.254-261
• /
• 2020

Purpose: Despite the importance of mental health-related quality of life among workers, its comprehensive understanding is lacking. This study aimed to identify influencing factors regarding mental health-related quality of life through a comprehensive literature review. Methods: The integrative review method of Whittemore and Knaf was used. Data search was conducted on papers published before September 2020, and RISS, NDSL, and KISS were used for the search. Results: Fourteen studies were selected for analysis. Five factors affecting the mental health-related quality of life of workers were found. Mental and physical health status, job stress, working environment, health behaviors, and other personal and socio-economic characteristics were significant influencing factors. Conclusion: Findings from the review suggest the necessity of developing a customized intervention program to improve the mental health-related quality of life of workers.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Fundamentals of Nursing
• /
• v.24 no.3
• /
• pp.209-218
• /
• 2017

Purpose: The purpose of this research was to identify factors that influence health-related quality of life of patients who have had knee or hip arthroplasty. Factors included sleep disorders, pain, activities of daily living, and depression. Methods: The participants in this research were 97 patients within one year after receiving knee or hip arthroplasty surgery and who regularly visited a hospital outpatient department. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA, and stepwise regression analysis with the SPSS program. Results: Sleep disorders, pain, activities of daily living, and depression had significant correlations with health related quality of life. Factors influencing health-related quality of life among arthroplasty patients were the length of time since surgery, sleep disorders, activities of daily living, and depression. These factors explained 58% of the participants' health-related quality of life. Conclusion: The results show that various factors can affect patients' health-related quality of life following joint replacement surgery. The findings indicate that sleep disorders and depression should receive continued attention after the arthroplasty. It is also necessary to develop appropriate nursing intervention programs to lower depression and increase patient participation in daily living activities.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
• /
• v.51 no.6
• /
• pp.320-325
• /
• 2018

Objectives: This pilot study tested the effectiveness of a brief alcohol-related intervention delivered by the social media app WeChat to teach about ethanol-induced facial flushing and increase the willingness of students who see another student flushing to suggest that he or she should reduce or stop drinking. In the context of Chinese drinking culture, it is sometimes socially difficult to refuse a drink, even when experiencing physical discomfort, such as flushing. Methods: Classrooms of students in a medical university in China were randomly assigned to the intervention or control group. Students in the intervention group were invited to view 3 alcohol education lessons on WeChat during a 2-week period. A pretest and posttest before and after the 2-week period assessed changes in students' willingness to intervene if they saw someone flush while drinking. Data were collected about students' alcohol use and their ratings of the lessons. Results: Mixed-design analysis of variance yielded a significant time-by-treatment interaction effect on the variable of willingness to suggest that a flushing person stop or slow down their drinking, and the change was significant between the intervention and control groups. One-way analysis of covariance yielded a significant treatment effect at the posttest, after controlling for the pretest score. Students rated the lessons above the midpoint of the scale for being informative, interesting, and useful. Conclusions: The pilot study showed that a brief alcohol-related intervention delivered by WeChat could produce a measurable positive change in the willingness of university students to suggest that a student who flushes should stop drinking. This pilot study also suggested improvements for future lessons and evaluation design.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
• /
• v.50 no.3
• /
• pp.431-443
• /
• 2020

Purpose: This study aimed to investigate health behavior related to particulate matter (PM) in older adults and examine the factors affecting it. Methods: A cross-sectional survey design was used. Data were collected from 150 voluntary older adult participants from Songpa-gu in Seoul. The survey questions measured service perception and experience related to PM, risk perception related to PM, attitude toward risk of PM, and health behavior related to PM. Results: The average score for health behavior related to PM was 79.37, ranging from 51 to 115. There was a significant positive correlation between health behavior related to PM and risk perception related to PM (r=.58, p<.001) as well as between health behavior related to PM and attitude toward risk of PM (r=.70, p<.001). Multiple linear regression revealed that health behavior related to PM was predicted by levels of the existence of disease related to PM (β=.14, p=.019), service experience related to PM (β=.20, p=.021), risk perception related to PM (β=.20, p=.019), and attitude toward risk of PM (β=.44, p<.001). The model including these variables accounted for 47.0% of health behavior related to PM. Conclusion: Korean older adults have the low level of health behavior related to PM. The findings of this study emphasize that risk perception and attitude toward risk of PM should be evaluated, and the underlying diseases related to PM and their service experience should be considered in developing intervention to improve health behavior related to PM.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
• /
• v.33 no.1
• /
• pp.74-83
• /
• 2022

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify latent classes of health-related quality of life trajectories in middle-aged women and investigate predictors for latent classes. Methods: This study utilized data from the 2^nd, the 4^th to the 7^th Korean Longitudinal Survey of Women & Families. The subjects included 1,351 women aged 40~45 years. The data was analyzed using latent class growth analysis and logistic regression. Results: Two trajectories were identified for health-related quality of life in middle-aged women; 'persistently good' and 'increasing' groups. Predictors for the 'increasing' group were lower economic status, higher depression, and lower perceived health status. Conclusion: This study showed that characteristics of the individual, symptom status, and health perceptions were associated with health-related quality of life in middle-aged women. It is necessary to provide effective intervention for latent classes of health-related quality of life trajectories based on physical, mental, and social factors.

• The Journal of Korean Physical Therapy
• /
• v.22 no.4
• /
• pp.91-96
• /
• 2010

Purpose: Among computer users, the awkward posture and workstation setups of workers contribute to work-related upper limb musculoskeletal disorders. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of a traditional physical therapy and ergonomic intervention by physical therapists in 4 computer users. Methods: After checking Visual Analogue Scores (VAS), four subjects who were treated by physical therapy for neck and shoulder problems related to VDT syndrome were enrolled in the study. All subjects spent at least 40 hours per week at a computer workstation. All subjects had pain and ergonomic states evaluated using methods such as VAS, Neck Disability Index (NDI), Workstyle short form, Rapid Upper Limb Assessment (RULA), and OSHA VDT checklist (Occupational Safety and Health Administration video display terminal) before a physical therapy + ergonomic intervention. Participants were re-evaluated 1 month later. Results: Participants showed more improvement of their neck pain after being treated with a physical therapy plus ergonomic intervention than when treatment consisted only of physical therapy. Improvements in RULA, Workstyle short form, and OSHA VDT checklist also were achieved. Conclusion: This case study suggests the importance of examining the work habits and work-related postures of subjects who complain of neck and shoulder pain that is exacerbated by computer use. Personalized ergonomic interventions and physical therapy can lead to improvement of patients with VDT syndrome.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Fundamentals of Nursing
• /
• v.12 no.3
• /
• pp.325-336
• /
• 2005

Purpose: This study was done to analyze the trends in excercise-related research in nursing and non nursing research studies published in Korea. Method: Two hundred and ten research studies published in Korea between January, 1990 and December, 2002 were analyzed according to the criteria of methological characteristics, pattern of excercise-related program, and measurement index of exercise effect. Results: There were twice many papers from nursing compared to other fields, and many experimental studies in nursing were done with more variety than in non nursing fields. Aspects of exercise pattern, such as excercise type. duration, and frequency, exercise-intervention pattern, and applying theory were especially included. When patterns of excercise therapy and index of exercise effect were analyzed, each researcher used their own unique excercise contents and intervention patterns(excercise time per week, exercise duration at each time period, excercise, intervention time, and etc). Conclusion: For the importance of exercise therapy to health improvement and the proper suggestion of exercise therapy on the basis of this research, meta-analysis of exercise effect are needed, and with this analysis, intervention patterns of exercise, development of standard exercise therapy, and identification of exercise effects are required.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
• /
• v.65 no.6
• /
• pp.1111-1123
• /
• 2023

This study aims to present a more systematic and developmental research direction by classifying animal-mediation related research trends published in Korea. We analyzed the research trends of 68 domestic animal-mediation programs published in 26 journals over the past 24 years under the premise of the necessity of animal-assisted therapy, which considered a very effective intervention method in the practice areas of various subjects. Therefore, this study examines the year of publication of animal-mediation related research conducted in various academic fields from 1998 to 2022, research data sources, characteristics of research subjects, types of interventions and research topics, research design and intervention sessions, intervention methods, and ethical consideration statements. The results of this study are as follows: First, in the source of research and research trends by year, the number of papers published in animal-related societies was the highest at 34 (50%); the number of studies has been steadily increasing since the mid-2000s. Second, regarding research trends by subject, 45 (66%) were general subjects, 23 (34%) were medically diagnosed, 60 (88%) were selected through pre-evaluation, and 8 (12%) were requested. Third, regarding research trends by method, 27 (40%) of the pretests were conducted before and after the experiment-control group, and only 3 (4%) of the 68 papers were examined later. Fourth, regarding research trends by content, depression (25%) was the most frequently applied variable, and regarding intervention sessions, 53 (78%) were less than 12 sessions. Fifth, regarding research trends and ethical consideration statements by treatment approach method, 58 cases (85%) of individual treatment approaches and 10 cases (15%) of intervention approaches integrated with individual treatment approaches, and 23 cases (34%) of studies with ethical consideration statements or the Institutional Review Board's (IRB) approval. Based on the study results, the implications and research directions of animal-assisted therapy related research are discussed.

• Safety and Health at Work
• /
• v.5 no.4
• /
• pp.216-221
• /
• 2014

Background: Mental health complaints are quite common in health care employees and can have adverse effects on work functioning. The aim of this study was to evaluate an e-mental health (EMH) approach to workers' health surveillance (WHS) for nurses and allied health professionals. Using the waiting-list group of a previous randomized controlled trial with high dropout and low compliance to the intervention, we studied the pre- and posteffects of the EMH approach in a larger group of participants. Methods: We applied a pretest-posttest study design. The WHS consisted of online screening on impaired work functioning and mental health followed by online automatically generated personalized feedback, online tailored advice, and access to self-help EMH interventions. The effects on work functioning, stress, and work-related fatigue after 3 months were analyzed using paired t tests and effect sizes. Results: One hundred and twenty-eight nurses and allied health professionals participated at pretest as well as posttest. Significant improvements were found on work functioning (p = 0.01) and work-related fatigue (p < 0.01). Work functioning had relevantly improved in 30% of participants. A small meaningful effect on stress was found (Cohen d = .23) in the participants who had logged onto an EMH intervention (20%, n = 26). Conclusion: The EMH approach to WHS improves the work functioning and mental health of nurses and allied health professionals. However, because we found small effects and participation in the offered EMH interventions was low, there is ample room for improvement.

• Safety and Health at Work
• /
• v.2 no.2
• /
• pp.183-193
• /
• 2011

Objectives: A rapid increase in the population of migrant workers in Korea has brought new challenges regarding the possible effects of acculturation on health. The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of acculturation- and work-related psychosocial factors on work-related musculoskeletal disorders among migrant female workers living in Korea. Methods: A cross-sectional survey design was used. A translated, structured questionnaire was administrated to 156 southeastern Asian female full-time workers living in Korea. Results: About 35% of the participants experienced some type(s) of work-related musculoskeletal disorder(s), which were more prevalent in Vietnamese women than in Thai and Filipino women. Women who preferred to maintain their own heritage and to reject the host country heritage were at risk for work-related musculoskeletal disorders. Conclusion: Acculturation strategy and nationality were found to be significant factors associated with work-related musculoskeletal disorders. Health professionals need to accommodate acculturation contexts into risk assessment and intervention development for work-related musculoskeletal disorders separately for different nationalities.