• Journal of Community Nutrition
• /
• v.7 no.3
• /
• pp.141-148
• /
• 2005

Food handling practices playa key role in the prevalence of food-borne illness. Despite the fact that pregnant women are high risk groups for food-borne disease, little is known about their actual food handling practices at home. The objective of this study was to investigate behaviors regarding food-related hygienic practices of pregnant women. The questionnaire included questions in five major areas : personal hygiene ; adequate cooking ; avoiding cross contamination ; keeping food at safe temperatures ; and avoiding food from unsafe sources. Analysis of 488 questionnaires showed the respondents were unaware of the importance of safe food handling practices. Especially, pregnant women in our study should be encouraged to be careful about either risk of adequate cooking $(2.08\pm0.66)$ and keeping foods at safe temperatures $(2.69\pm0.63)$. Residency and number of children were consistent independent predictors of food handling behaviors. Previous food safety education also was found to have significant effect on food handling practices. TV news and newspapers were considered the most usable sources of food safety information by respondents. The behaviors identified in this study represent ones of particular importance for high-risk populations, like pregnant women. These population characteristics identified in this study could be incorporated in development of food safety educational programs for pregnant women being vulnerable on food-borne illness. Our results could have implications for the design of effective food safety educational efforts. This study indicates the need for continued and improved food safety education and for enforcing systematic food safety education for pregnant women.

• Women's Health Nursing
• /
• v.11 no.4
• /
• pp.280-287
• /
• 2005

Purpose: This study was to provide preliminary data for degree of self-leadership in pregnant women. Method: Participants were 148 pregnant women who visited 2 university hospitals in Taegu city. Data collection was done from April 16 to May 22, 2005 by self administered questionnaires. Results: The mean score for self-leadership of pregnant women was 3.27 and the thought self-leadership of subconcept was the highest score. The highest mean score in self-leadership was found in 'When I'm faced with a problem during the pregnancy period' and 'I tend to look for the opportunity it contains rather than drawbacks'. The lowest mean score in self-leadership was found in 'I often practice health management before I actually do them'. There was the highest positive correlation between self-leadership and natural reward. Conclusion: This study had highest positive correlation between self-leadership and natural reward. Considering this, self-leadership is an effective nursing strategy to promote natural reward. Further studies are necessary to identify the level of self-leadership in pregnant women.

• Journal of Home Health Care Nursing
• /
• v.30 no.2
• /
• pp.183-193
• /
• 2023

Purpose: This study was aimed at identifying the factors influencing the practice of taegyo in pregnant women. Methods: A descriptive survey-based study design was used. The study included 210 married pregnant women aged 19 years or higher, excluding pregnant women from multicultural families, who attended the outpatient obstetrics and gynecology departments of a general hospital and a tertiary hospital in C City, from June 29, 2022, to September 8, 2022. Independent t-test, analysis of variance, and multiple regression analysis were used to determine the factors influencing the practice of taegyo. Results: The mean of the subjects' practice of taegyo was 3.49 ± 0.47. The factors influencing the practice of taegyo among pregnant women were perception of taegyo and spousal support. The higher the perceptions of taegyo and the greater the spousal support, the higher the practice of taegyo. The explanatory power of the regression model was approximately 49.2%. Conclusion: The factors influencing the practice of taegyo among pregnant women were confirmed to be the perception of taegyo followed by spousal support. The findings of the study confirmed that efforts to improve the perception of taegyo and spousal support are necessary to improve the adoption of the practice of taegyo among pregnant women.

• Women's Health Nursing
• /
• v.13 no.2
• /
• pp.123-130
• /
• 2007

Purpose: The purposes of this study were to examine the level of social support, health promoting behaviors and depression among unmarried pregnant women and to identify the relationship between social support, health promoting behaviors and depression. Method: A descriptive correlational study was conducted. The participants were 102 unmarried pregnant women receiving shelter services from four facilities in two metropolitan cities. Data was collected using a self-administered questionnaire. Descriptive statistics, ANOVA and Pearson correlation were used for data analysis. Results: The level of social support and health promoting behaviors were relatively lower and the level of depression was relatively higher than those of married pregnant women. The participants received especially low social support from their unmarried partner. There was a positive relationship between social support and health promoting behaviors. Moreover, there were negative relationships between social support and depression and between health promoting behaviors and depression. Conclusions: To promote physical and emotional health of unmarried pregnant women, more attention is necessary to increase their social support. A nursing intervention program to increase social support among unmarried pregnant women in needed.

• Women's Health Nursing
• /
• v.12 no.2
• /
• pp.115-123
• /
• 2006

Purpose: This study was to examine the relationship between health perception, prenatal care behaviors and health promoting behaviors of unmarried pregnant women. Method: The subjects were 97 unmarried pregnant women. The data was collected through personal interviews using a questionnaire. Adjusted instruments were the health perception scale developed by Ware, prenatal care behavior scale developed by Lee, and health promoting behavior scale developed by Pender. Data was analyzed by descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA, and the Pearson correlation coefficient with SPSS program. Result: The mean score of health perception was 3.3, and Resistance-Susceptibility was the highest. The mean score of prenatal care behaviors was 2.9, while that of health promoting behaviors was 2.5. The relationship between health perception and prenatal care behaviors was significant(r=0.268, p=.008). The relationship between prenatal care behaviors and health promoting behaviors was also significant (r=0.633, p=.000). Conclusion: The higher the health perception of unmarried pregnant women, the more they are concerned about good prenatal care behaviors. Unmarried pregnant women did well on health promoting behaviors when they had are high degree of good prenatal care behaviors. Therefore, in order to promote positive health perceptions of unmarried pregnant women, it is necessary to develop and adjust various education and supporting programs.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
• /
• v.26 no.3
• /
• pp.347-356
• /
• 1993

Plasma concentrations of zinc and copper were measured in 59 non-pregnant women and 105 pregnant women(12 ; early pregant, 93 ; late pregnant) to estimate and compare both groups and to detect the effects of iron supplementation on the plasma zinc and copper concentrations in the pregant women. The mean plasma zinc concentration of the early pregnant group was not significantly different with those of the non-pregnant group. But in contrast, the mean plasma zinc concentration of the late pregnant group was significantly lower than those of the non-pregnant and early pregnant group. Mean plasma copper concentration were significantly elevated in ealry pregnant group and doubled in late pregnant compared to non-pregnant. In Fe supplemented group, mean plasma zinc concentrations were lower and mean plasma copper higher than those of Fe non-supplemented group. It appeared that Fe supplementation had effects on the decrease of plasma zinc concentrations in pregnancy.

• Women's Health Nursing
• /
• v.17 no.5
• /
• pp.491-498
• /
• 2011

Purpose: Recently as couples have only one or two children, they concern about their children's optimal health. Furthermore, as the basic principles of Korean traditional prenatal education (Taegyo) are supported by scientific evidence, and as increasing numbers of pregnant women are recognizing Taegyo refresh, the practice of Taegyo is growing. The purpose of this study was to identify the factors associated with the practice of Taegyo among pregnant Korean women. Methods: This was a cross-sectional, survey study of 228 pregnant women recruited at a health center in South Korea using a convenience sampling method. The instruments included the perception of Taegyo scale, the spouse's support scale, the self-confidence for infant care scale, and the practice of Taegyo scale. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and multiple regression analyses. Results: The results of the stepwise multiple regression analysis indicated that the following factors accounted for 26.5% of the variance in the practice of Taegyo: the perception of Taegyo, family income. Conclusion: Consequently, this result showed that the pregnant women were influenced by family income, spouses' support as requisite factors, and also they developed the level of self-confidence for infant care and the perception of Taegyo as self-care agency for the practice of Taegyo. The present study findings will add to the accumulated knowledge of health care professionals about the cultural factors involved in the practice of Taegyo and the traditional cultural beliefs and culture-specific health promoting behaviors of ethnic minority pregnant women to provide culturally competent care for them.

• Health Policy and Management
• /
• v.19 no.4
• /
• pp.53-65
• /
• 2009

Purpose: This study was conducted to identify the prenatal heath care utilization and expenditure among pregnant women. Method: This was a 5-month follow-up study using a stratified sampling and the data were drawn from the "nationwide claim database of Korean National Health Insurance Corporation". Result: This study found that pregnant women were first diagnosed with pregnancy when they were 7.1 weeks pregnant, received 12.7 times of prenatal examinations and 10.6 times of ultrasonogram. It was revealed that 67.5% of the subjects continued to receive prenatal care at the same medical institutions from the diagnosis of pregnancy to the delivery. The study also showed that the total expenditure of prenatal care per pregnant woman was 700,000 Korean Won (KRW) on average and the insurance coverage rate stood at only 20%. Pregnant women living in metropolitan area spent more on prenatal healthcare expenditure than those who living in medium-sized city or rural area. Conclusion: The results of this study implies that the government needs to provide pregnant women with continuous support by increasing health insurance coverage for prenatal care. Especially, it is considered to provide more support to the pregnant women residing in medically underserved areas.

• Journal of dental hygiene science
• /
• v.20 no.4
• /
• pp.245-251
• /
• 2020

Background: This study tries to compare and analyze the removal effect of dental plaque of general dentifrice and pregnant women's dentifrice and quantify the results to provide basic data so that consumers can make reasonable choices when purchasing dentifrice, and also increase interest in the dental plaque. Methods: After forming a dental plaque (carbohydrate porridge) on the labial surface of the bovine teeth, a disclosing agent was applied. Then the same experimenter brushed the surface of the bovine teeth using an electric toothbrush and took photographs using a DSLR camera. Thereafter, the residual amount of dental plaque was analyzed using the ImageJ program, and SPSS 26.0 was used for statistical processing. Results: The average residual amount of dental plaque using the general dentifrice was 11.71% for Perio, 9.45% for Cliden, and 8.47% for 2080, and the average residual amount for the three types was approximately 9.88%. The average residual amount of dental plaque of pregnant women's dentifrice was 13.95% for Jeninmothers, 12.53% for Tntnmoms, and 12.63% for Mommiracle, and the average residual amount of the three types was approximately 13.04%. On comparing the average residual amount of dental plaque between general and pregnant women's dentifrices, it was observed to be 3.16% higher for the latter. However, the results were not statistically significant. Conclusion: According to the research results, there was no significant difference in removal effects of general dentifrice and pregnant women's dentifrice. In addition, when a pregnant woman uses the right toothbrushing method with pregnant women's dentifrice, it can prevent or inhibit the progression of the gestational periodontal disease. Therefore, we recommend pregnant women to use pregnant women's dentifrices.

• IMMUNE NETWORK
• /
• v.14 no.3
• /
• pp.149-155
• /
• 2014

We performed this study to evaluate the role of Interleukin-17 (IL-17) and Interleukin-18 (IL-18) in insulin resistance during normal pregnancy. This descriptive cross sectional study was carried out on 97 healthy pregnant women including 32, 25, and 40 individuals in the first, second, and third trimesters, respectively, and on 28 healthy non pregnant women between the autumn of 2012 and the spring of 2013. We analyzed the serum concentrations of IL-17 and IL-18 by using the enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Insulin resistance was measured by homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance equation. No significant differences between the demographic data of the pregnant and non pregnant groups were observed. Insulin resistant in pregnant women was significantly higher than the controls (p=0.006). Serum IL-17 concentration was significantly different in non pregnant women and pregnant women in all gestational ages (p<0.05). Serum IL-18 level was significantly lower in subjects with first, second, and third trimesters of pregnancy in compared to non pregnant women (p<0.05). No significant correlations were found between serum IL-17 and IL-18 levels with insulin resistance (r=0.08, p=0.34 vs. r=0.01, p=0.91, respectively). Our data suggested that IL-17 and IL-18 do not appear to attribute greatly to pregnancy deduced insulin resistance during normal pregnancy.