Yeu-Sheng Hsieh

Irregular breakfast eating and health status among adolescents in Taiwan

BackgroundRegular breakfast eating (RBE) is an important contributor to a healthy lifestyle and health status. The aims of the present study were to evaluate the relationships among irregular breakfast eating (IRBE), health status, and health promoting behavior (HPB) for Taiwanese adolescents.MethodsA cross-sectional, descriptive design was used to investigate a cluster sample of 1609 (7th -12th grade) adolescents located in the metropolitan Tao-Yuan area during the 2005 academic year. The main variables comprised breakfast eating pattern, body weight, and health promoting behaviors. Data were collected by a self-administered questionnaire.ResultsA total of 1609 participants were studied, 64.1% in junior high school and 35.9% in high school, boys (47.1%) and girls (52.9%) ranging in age from 12–20 years. Of the total participant population, 28.8% were overweight and nearly one quarter (23.6%) reported eating breakfast irregularly during schooldays. The findings indicated that adolescents with RBE had a lower risk of overweight (OR for IRBE vs. RBE = 1.51, 95% CI: 1.12, 2.04), and that the odds of becoming overweight were 51% greater for IRBE than for RBE even after controlling for demographical and HPB variables. IRBE also was a strong indicator for HPB. However, the profile of the high-risk IRBE group was predominantly junior high schoolchildren and/or children living without both parents.ConclusionThis study provides valuable information about irregular breakfast eating among adolescents, which is associated with being overweight and with a low frequency of health promoting behavior. School and family health promotion strategies should be used to encourage all adolescents to eat breakfast regularly.

Female Employment and Reproductive Behavior in Taiwan, 1980

The impact of female employment on fertility preferences and behavior is examined with data from a 1980national sample of Taiwanese women. The guiding hypothesis is that the greater the involvement of women in the impersonal market sector, the lower the fertility preferences, the longer the first birth interval, and the lower the actual fertility. Findings reveal that female employment in Taiwan is only weakly related to reproductive behavior. Even with increased participation of women in the modern market sector, female employment apparently has little impact on fertility preferences or behavior. Implications are drawn for policies aimed at lowering fertility.

Applicability of the Chinese Version of the Prodromal Questionnaire

BACKGROUND/PURPOSE Early detection and intervention of psychosis is clinically important. This study aimed to test the applicability of the Chinese version of the Prodromal Questionnaire (CPQ) for identifying prodromal states of psychosis. METHODS This is a two-group cross-sectional comparative study. The Prodromal Questionnaire (PQ) was translated into traditional Chinese based on Brislins Revised Model. Like the PQ, the CPQ provides results on four subscales: (1) positive symptoms, (2) negative symptoms, (3) disorganized symptoms, and (4) general symptoms. An expert panel of five senior psychiatrists established the content validity of the CPQ. The experimental group was a sample of 100 first-visit patients to a psychiatric outpatient department (FVPOD). The comparison group comprised 98 nursing students without any history of psychiatric disturbances. Both the CPQ and the Chinese Health Questionnaire-12 were administered to all 198 subjects. Clinical psychosis was assessed using the Chinese version of the Diagnostic Interview for Genetic Studies, and 30 of the 100 FVPOD subjects were thus identified as psychotic patients and the remaining 70 were non-psychotic. RESULTS Content validity of the CPQ was confirmed by an expert panel of five senior psychiatrists, achieving an overall reliability in the range of 0.86-0.93. The FVPOD group and comparison group had significantly different mean scores on all four subscales of the CPQ. In identifying psychotic cases, the 35-item positive symptom subscale had high sensitivity (97%) and low specificity (30%) with a cutoff value of 8. Due to the low specificity, patients identified as potential psychotic cases were referred for further clinical evaluation. CONCLUSION Applicability of the CPQ was demonstrated by its high reliability and good ability to discriminate between clinical patients and a comparison group. The 35-item positive symptom subscale can be useful alone in general mental health settings for screening psychotic cases.

Moderating Effect of Psychosocial Factors for Dyspnea in Taiwanese and American Heart Failure Patients

Background: Dyspnea is the most common and distressing symptom of heart failure (HF). Evidence from empirical studies has shown that multiple factors apart from pathophysiological changes may influence this symptom. Purpose: This study explored the moderating effect of psychosocial factors between clinical characteristics and dyspnea in patients with HF. To assess the potential effects of cultural background, this study also compared differences in psychosocial factor moderating effects between HF patients in Taiwan and the United States. Methods: We recruited patients with HF from outpatient clinics in Taiwan and the United States. Data were collected at clinics and research centers. Dyspnea was measured using the modified pulmonary function status and dyspnea questionnaire. Psychosocial factors considered were depression, anxiety, perceived control, and perceived social support. These factors were measured using the Brief Symptom Inventory, Revised Control Attitudes Scale, and Multidimensional Scale of Social Support Scale, respectively. Multiple regressions with interaction effect analysis tested the moderator effects across these two groups. Results: Ninety-seven Taiwanese (mean age = 66.2 ± 12.1 years; 76% male; 28% NYHA [New York Heart Association] III/IV) and 96 American (mean age = 61.6 ± 11.7 years; 74% male; 42% NYHA III/IV) patients participated. In Taiwanese patients, only perceived social support (B = .08, p = .034) moderated the relationship between clinical variables and dyspnea. In American patients, depression (B = .75, p = .028) and anxiety (B = .85, p = .041) were moderators of the relationship between clinical status and dyspnea severity. Conclusions/Implications for Practice: Depression, anxiety, and perceived social support moderated the relationship of clinical characteristics with dyspnea in Taiwanese and American HF patients, respectively. Attention to these psychosocial factors may improve dyspnea status in HF patients. Symptom management should include a focus on patients’ psychological distress and social perspectives.

Household extension and reproductive behaviour in Taiwan

The inflence of household type on reproductive behavior is examined for a national probability sample of Taiwanese women. Data were derived from a 1980 national household survey of the labor force in Taiwan, focusing on 10,624 couples. Reproductive variables include measures of current and prospective fertility as well as cumulative fertility. In spite of remarkable social and economic development over the past 3 decades, extended families are still widely found in Taiwan. Women in extended households have only slightly higher fertility preferences and current fertility than women in nuclear families once marital duration is controlled. Although women in extended households marry earlier and receive more family help with child care than women in nuclear families, such factors are no longer considered sufficient to produce major differentials in reproductive behavior. Residence and husbands class of work are the strongest correlates of whether a household is currently extended or nuclear. In general, the husbands characteristics are more strongly related to family type than the wifes. Findings suggest that preferences for smaller families and low fertility need not await a transformation to a nuclear family structue.

Settlement Typology and Community Participation in Participatory Landscape Ecology of Residents

Abstract Numerous scholars have emphasised the importance of providing participatory landscape ecology (PLE) that local residents deem acceptable. However, the complexity of PLE may require promoting the understanding of settlement types and community participation in PLE of residents. Our empirical study contributes to the critical PLE by adopting physical and social environments to determine the community participation of residents. The physical environments are classified into four settlement types: high-rise/urban, low-rise/urban, high-rise/rural and low-rise/rural. Survey data collected from 495 residents in the Taipei metropolitan area revealed the typology of physical environments, which can be used to substantially explain community participation. Perceived residential satisfaction (PRS) and neighbouring behaviour (NB), derived from the social environment, were tested for describing community participation. We observed an indirect relationship between settlement typology and community participation through the two intervening roles of PRS and NB. This affirms the importance of social environment to the relationship between settlement types and community participation.

Institutional capacity and rural community planning in Japan: an event history analysis

Bottom-up and governance paradigms are becoming more prevalent in rural community planning in East Asia. Rural communities must enhance their institutional capacities, which are the baseline for planning future changes. However, few studies have analyzed the relationship between institutional capacity and rural community planning. Using a quantitative method of event history analysis, we compared the hazards of establishing conferences and plan approval from the Sato-dzukuri of Kobe City, Japan. We examined the effect of institutional capacity on rural community planning for the conference establishment and plan approval. We found that knowledge resources and relational resources are related to the proxy mobilization capacity for conference establishment. These resources are related to plan approval, although no relationship exists between conference establishment and plan approval. Conferences can be planned more rapidly than plans for approval can be, although both require substantial time. Communities with rural contexts present more rapid conference establishment than do suburban areas, whereas there are no significant differences in plan approval. This suggests that rural communities require more effort for the plan approval process. Rural community planning should judiciously address issues of institutional capacity regarding restrained knowledge resources and progress management, and should maintain vigilance regarding administration to achieve local governance.