Jeonghyun Cho

Health-promoting behaviour among women with abdominal obesity: a conceptual link to social support and perceived stress.

AIM To identify a conceptual link among health-promoting behaviour, interpersonal support and perceived stress and to examine whether the link between interpersonal support and health-promoting behaviour would be mediated by perceived stress among women with abdominal obesity. BACKGROUND Abdominal obesity is a strong risk factor for cardiovascular disease in women and its reduction can be achieved by weight loss. Adopting health-promoting behaviour may be critical for successful weight loss. DESIGN A cross-sectional, correlational study design. METHOD Study participants were 126 women with abdominal obesity, who comprised a baseline sample in the Community-based, Heart and Weight Management Trial. The Data were collected between September 2010-November 2011. A multiple regression analysis and Sobels test were performed. FINDINGS Higher levels of interpersonal support and lower levels of perceived stress were significantly associated with higher levels of health-promoting behaviour, after controlling for age, obesity-related comorbidity, postmenopausal status and current smoking in the regression models. The association between interpersonal support and health-promoting behaviour was significantly mediated by perceived stress in the Sobels test; the magnitude of the association between interpersonal support and health-promoting behaviour decreased when adding perceived stress to the predictor variables in the regression model. CONCLUSION Our findings indicate the practical significance of identifying the levels of interpersonal support and perceived stress among women seeking weight management interventions. Nurses need to develop effective strategies for enhancing social support and stress management skills in weight management interventions for facilitating health-promoting behaviour.

A study on the Effectiveness of Case Management in Elderly Medicaid Beneficiaries by Geographic Location

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to compare the effectiveness of case management in elderly medicaid beneficiaries according to geographic location. Methods: Data were collected from 23,633 elderly medicaid beneficiaries assigned from over users of medicaid. We used the need assessment tool developed by the government, which consists of 19 items with four subscales. Results: Among elderly medicaid beneficiaries, statistically significant differences in effectiveness of case management were observed for quality of life, self-care competency, medical care utility, and support system. Differences in case management effectiveness were higher in urban areas than in metropolitan or rural areas. Conclusion: The differentiated and tailored intervention model based on characteristics of participants, resource distribution, and geographic location may be needed for effective case management for elderly medicaid beneficiaries.

Health Education Needs and Confidence of School Nurses in Korean Secondary Schools

Purpose: The aim of this study was to determine the perceived needs and confidence of school nurses in health education at middle and high schools in Seoul, Korea. Methods: A descriptive survey questionnaire was developed by a research team to investigate the perceived needs and confidence across eight health education areas. A total of 329 school nurses at secondary schools in the metropolitan areas of Seoul participated. Descriptive statistics, the t-test, and ANOVA were conducted to analyze the data. Results: Generally high means in perceived education needs(Mean: 3.8~4.7/5) and health education confidence (Mean 3.3~4.5/5) were reported. However, there were significantly low means of health education confidence related to perceived needs in health education for all areas of health education. While injury prevention and emergency care education were the highest perceived educational needs and were also areas with high confidence of school nurses, mental health, social health, and sexual health were areas where nurses showed a significantly lower confidence. In general, nurses with a longer clinical experience and educational career had a higher confidence in injury prevention, emergency care, and mental health. Conclusions: Multi-level support, including the continuing education and proactive in-service training, for the school nurses needs to be developed to improve their teaching competency.

Program Development and Effectiveness of Workplace Health Promotion Program for Preventing Metabolic Syndrome among Office Workers

This paper aims to develop and analyze the effects of a socio-ecological model-based intervention program for preventing metabolic syndrome (MetS) among office workers. The intervention program was developed using regular health examinations, a “health behavior and need” assessment survey among workers, and a focus group study. According to the type of intervention, subjects took part in three groups: health education via an intranet-based web magazine (Group 1), self-monitoring with the U-health system (Group 2), and the target population who received intensive intervention (Group 3). The intervention programs of Group 1 and Group 2, which relied on voluntary participation, did not show significant effects. In Group 3, which relied on targeted and proactive programs, showed a decrease in waist circumference and in fasting glucose (p < 0.001). The MetS score in both males (−0.61 ± 3.35 versus −2.32 ± 2.55, p = 0.001) and females (−3.99 ± 2.05 versus −5.50 ± 2.19, p = 0.028) also showed a statistically significant decrease. In light of the effectiveness of the intensive intervention strategy for metabolic syndrome prevention among workers used in this study, companies should establish targeted and proactive health care programs rather than providing a healthcare system that is dependent on an individual’s voluntary participation.

Office Workers’ Risk of Metabolic Syndrome-Related Indicators A 10-Year Cohort Study

The purpose of the study is to assess the relationship between the prevalence of metabolic syndrome–related risk factors and work tenure among office workers. A 10-year cohort analysis was conducted using employees’ health examinations given to new employees within 1 or 2 years of joining the firm and every 5 years thereafter. Age-adjusted odds ratios (95% confidence interval [CI], p < .05) were calculated based on a contrast test with general estimating equations. Specifically, the age-adjusted odds ratios and CIs of those with 20 ± 1 years of work, compared with those with 1 to 2 years of work, were as follows: triglycerides (≥150 mg/dl) 3.01 (2.11, 4.28), waist circumference (male ≥90 cm) 2.70 (1.63, 4.45), and fasting glucose (≥100 mg/dl) 2.67 (1.78, 4.01). The findings of the relationship between metabolic syndrome risk and work tenure as well as the baseline health data of new employees provide a foundation for developing a workplace health management system.

Development of a Standardized Job Description for Healthcare Managers of Metabolic Syndrome Management Programs in Korean Community Health Centers

PURPOSE This study aimed to develop a job description for healthcare managers of metabolic syndrome management programs using task analysis. METHODS Exploratory research was performed by using the Developing a Curriculum method, the Intervention Wheel model, and focus group discussions. Subsequently, we conducted a survey of 215 healthcare workers from 25 community health centers to verify that the job description we created was accurate. RESULTS We defined the role of healthcare managers. Next, we elucidated the tasks of healthcare managers and performed needs analysis to examine the frequency, importance, and difficulty of each of their duties. Finally, we verified that our job description was accurate. Based on the 8 duties, 30 tasks, and 44 task elements assigned to healthcare managers, we found that the healthcare managers functioned both as team coordinators responsible for providing multidisciplinary health services and nurse specialists providing health promotion services. In terms of importance and difficulty of tasks performed by the healthcare managers, which were measured using a determinant coefficient, the highest-ranked task was planning social marketing (15.4), while the lowest-ranked task was managing human resources (9.9). CONCLUSION A job description for healthcare managers may provide basic data essential for the development of a job training program for healthcare managers working in community health promotion programs.

The Relationship between Role Conflict, Job Satisfaction, and Organizational Commitment among Community Healthcare Workers of the Seoul Preventive Project for Metabolic Syndrome

Purpose: The aim of this study was to identify a conceptual link between role conflict, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment, with a specific examination on how job satisfaction mediated the relationship between role conflict and organizational commitment, among community healthcare workers. Methods: Participants were 119 community healthcare workers of the Seoul Preventive Project for Metabolic Syndrome at 15 community health centers. Descriptive analysis, correlations analysis, and multiple regression analysis were used for statistical analysis of our data. Additionally, Sobel`s test was used to verify the significance of the mediating effect. Results: An inverse association between role conflict and organizational commitment was found (beta

국내 성인 말기암 환자의 삶의 질에 대한 통합적 고찰

Purpose: Despite the importance of promoting quality of life (QOL) among patients with terminal cancer, a comprehensive understanding of QOL among this population is lacking in South Korea. Thus, the purpose of the integrative review was to identify patterns in studies about patient-reported QOL among Korean adult patients with a diagnosis of terminal cancer. Methods: The integrative review method described by Whittemore and Knaf was used in this stuy. Twenty-five articles were selected for analysis. Results: Most articles addressed factors that influenced QOL or validated an assessment instrument to measure QOL in patients with terminal cancer. Only one qualitative research article which described patients’ experiences of living with terminal cancer. Six other articles examined the effects of interventions on patients’ QOL but these did not provide detailed information about interventions. These articles seldom used robust designs and methods to test the interventions. Conclusion: Findings from the review suggest conducting studies with qualitative methodologies to gain an in-depth understanding of QOL from patients’ perspectives. Additional studies with robust designs and methods are also necessary to develop and test theory-based, empirically-derived interventions that help maintain or promote QOL in patients with terminal cancer.

Trends of Research on the Case Management of Medicaid Beneficiaries in Korea

Purpose: This study was conducted to understand the trend in research by analyzing previous studies related to the case management of Medicaid and to explore the direction of future research. Methods: Thirty three studies conducted from January 2003 to June 2015 were analyzed according to characteristics of researchers and subjects, research methods, measurable variables, and key words. Results: Of the studies analyzed, 69.7% were conducted on Medicaid beneficiaries, and 65.6% were conducted on the group of high risk for over medical utilization. The mainly used research design was a survey study design, which was 51.5% of them, followed by experimental (24.2%), and qualitative (12.1%) study design. Most frequently measured variables were medical utilization (62.5%), needs for case management (41.7%), and health status (25.0%). The topics most frequently studied were related to medical utilization, effect of case management, self-care, and program development in Medicaid beneficiaries and job and socio-psychological factors in case managers. Conclusion: The future direction of nursing research in Medicaid case management is to be vitalized through the expansion of the research population, and concretization and diversification of the research topics. In addition, conduct of further studies on intervention strategies and contents for improving quality of case management program is also needed.