This study was done to compare demographic characteristics, comorbidity, and health habits of elders with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and elders with cognitively normal function (CNF).

Secondary data analysis was conducted using data from the Database of the Seoul Dementia Management Project for 5,773 adults age 60 and above.

The MCI group showed an older age distribution, but there was no significant education difference between the two groups. Elders with MCI had more diabetes and stroke than elders with CNF. In subgroups, the same findings were observed in women, but not in men. While more men with MCI had hypertension compared to men with CNF, there was no significant difference in hypertension between the two groups for women. Elders with MCI, men in particular, had a lower prevalence of obesity than men with CNF. MCI individuals did less exercise compared to individuals with CNF. While there were no significant differences in alcohol consumption and smoking between MCI and CNF groups, the over 80's subgroup with MCI reported more alcohol consumption.

Findings from this study could be helpful in designing community-based dementia prevention programs and health policies to reduce the prevalence of dementia or related cognitive impairments.

The purpose of this study was to examine the mediation of self-efficacy in the relationship between anger and the functional health of homeless men in order to provide a basis for planning nursing interventions to improve the functional health of homeless persons.

The participants were 137 homeless men who lived in homeless shelters or visited one center serving free meals for homeless persons in Seoul. Data were collected using self-report questionnaires and analyzed with the SPSS-WIN 20.0 program. The instruments were the Functional Health Pattern Screening Assessment Tool (FHPAST), Self-efficacy Scale (SES), and State-trait Anger Expression Inventory-Korean version (STAXI-K).

The mean score for functional health was 2.41. Overall self-efficacy was 70.82. state anger was 16.53, trait anger was 19.54, and anger expression was 25.31. There were signigicant correlations among the 3 variables, functional health, self-efficacy, and anger. Also, self-efficacy had a complete mediating effect in the relationship between anger and functional health.

Based on the findings of this study, health management programs focusing on anger management and self-efficacy improvement are highly recommended to promote functional health in homeless persons.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of Cu/Zn SOD on reduction of hindlimb muscular atrophy induced by cisplatin in rats.

Forty-two rats were assigned to three groups; control group, Cisplatin (CDDP) group and cisplatin with Cu/Zn SOD (CDDP-SOD) group. At day 35 hindlimb muscles were dissected. Food intake, activity, withdrawal threshold, muscle weight, and Type I, II fiber cross-sectional area (CSA) of dissected muscles were measured. Relative SOD activity and expression of MHC and phosphorylated Akt, ERK were measured after dissection.

Muscle weight and Type I, II fiber CSA of hindlimb muscles in the CDDP group were significantly less than the control group. Muscle weight and Type I, II fiber CSA of hindlimb muscles, food intake, activity, and withdrawal thresholds of the CDDP-SOD group were significantly greater than the CDDP group. There were no significant differences in relative SOD activities of hindlimb muscles between the CDDP-SOD and CDDP groups. MHC expression and phosphorylated Akt, ERK of hindlimb muscles in the CDDP-SOD group were significantly greater than the CDDP group.

Cu/Zn SOD attenuates hindlimb muscular atrophy induced by cisplatin through increased food intake and activity. Increment of phosphorylated Akt, ERK may relate to attenuation of hindlimb muscular atrophy.

The purpose of this study was to identify the effects of a Progressive Walking program (PW) on physical activity, exercise tolerance, recovery, and post-operative complications for patients with a lung resection.

A nonequivalent control group non-synchronized design was utilized and 37 participants with a lung resection (22 for control group, 15 for experimental group) were recruited at A university hospital from December 2012 to August 2013. The PW consisted of preoperative education, goal setting, and feedback, provided to the experimental group, and usual care to the control group. Data were analyzed using the SPSS WIN 18.0.

A higher proportion of patients in the experimental group showed adequate levels of physical activity (p= .001), shorter period of chest tube retention (≤ 7 days; p= .011), and shorter stay in the hospital (≤ 10 days; p= .036) than patients in the control group. Patients in the experimental group reported longer 6-minute walking distance (p= .032) and lower levels of dyspnea (p= .049) than patients in the control group. The PW did not influence the occurrence of pulmonary complications.

The findings of this study suggest that the PW could be a useful strategy for improving patients’ post-operative health and reducing cost after lung resection.

This study was done to examine the association between body mass index (BMI) and any type of clinical dementia.

Participants were 60,321 people over 60 years of age enrolled in the Seoul Dementia Management Project in 2011. K-MMSE was used to classify participants as having a cognitive impairment and the Clinical Dementia Rating or DSM-IV by psychiatrists or neurologists to determine whether participants were in the dementia group or the non-dementia group. Descriptive statistics, chi-square test, and binary logistic regression analysis were performed.

In the univariate analysis, age, education level, living with spouse, BMI, alcohol consumption, and exercise were significantly associated with dementia. In multivariable analysis, increasing age was positively associated with dementia, and educational level was negatively associated with dementia. The exercise group had a lower prevalence of dementia than the non-exercise group. The odds ratio of dementia in the over-weight and obese groups compared to the normal group was 0.85 (95% CI 0.60, 0.98) and 0.64 (95%CI 0.46, 0.75), respectively.

Results indicate that dementia is negatively associated with increasing BMI in people aged 60 years or older, but a prospective cohort study is needed to elucidate the causal effect relationship between BMI and dementia.

This study was done to develop and test the validity and reliability of the Korean version of the Pain Assessment Checklist for Seniors with Limited Ability to Communicate (PACSLAC-K) in assessing pain of elders with dementia living in long-term care facilities.

The PACSLAC-K was developed through forward-backward translation techniques. Survey data were collected from 307 elders with dementia living in 5 long-term care facilities in Korea. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation, Spearman's rho, paired t-test, ROC (receiver operation characteristic) curve with the SPSS/WIN (20.0) program.

The PACSLAC-K showed high internal consistency (.90), inter-rater reliability (.86), intra-rater reliability (.93), and high concurrent validity (.74) in paired t-test with PAINAD. Discriminant validity also showed a significant difference compared with no pain. The PACSLAC-K showed a sensitivity of .93, specificity of .88, and Area Under the Curve of .95 in the ROC curve.

The findings of this study demonstrate that PACSLAC-K is useful in assessing pain for elders with dementia living in long-term care facilities.

The purpose of this study was to explore the subjective experience of Highly active Antiretroviral therapy (HAART) adherence in Korean patients with HIV.

A phenomenological methodology was used for the study. Data were collected from March to December, 2013 using open-ended questions during in-depth interviews. Participants were taking HAART for HIV, and were contacted through purposive techniques.

Four men and 4 women whose average treatment period was 5.9 years participated in this study. Seven themes emerged from the analysis using Colazzi's method: (a) Seizing life in a deep sense of despair, (b) Struggling with medication, (c) Facing harsh treatment from health care providers, (d) Spoiling healthy pattern, (e) Hungering for communication and emotional support, (f) Turning to accepting HIV, (g) Becoming adherent to HIV treatment.

Prejudice from health care providers and lack of emotional support were barriers to HAART in Korea. Intervention strategies are needed to decrease prejudices from health care providers and to increase family support.

Objectives of this study were to investigate the association between efficiency and quality of health care in Long-term Care Hospitals (LTCH) and determine related factors that would enable achievement of both high efficiency and high quality at the same time.

Major data sources were the "2012 Korean Assessment of Propriety by Long-term Care Hospitals" obtained from the Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service. Cost variables were supplemented by a National Tax Service accounting document. First, data envelopment analysis was performed by generating efficiency scores for each LTCH. Second, matrix analysis was conducted to ascertain association between efficiency and quality. Lastly, kruskal-wallis and mann-whitney tests were conducted to identify related factors.

First, efficiency and quality of care are not in a relationship of trade-offs; thus, LTCH can be confident that high efficiency-high quality can be achieved. Second, LTCH with a large number of beds, longer tenure of medical personnel, and adequate levels of investment were more likely to have improved quality as well as efficiency.

It is essential to enforce legal standards appropriate to the facilities, reduce turnover of nursing staff, and invest properly in human resources. These consequences will help LTCH to maintain the balance of high efficiency-high quality in the long-run.

This study was conducted to identify the effects of newborn care education for fathers on their knowledge and confidence in newborn care at postpartum one month.

A nonequivalent control group pretest posttest design was used. The participants were 53 first-time fathers of newborns, 27 in experimental group, and 26 in control group. They were recruited at the nursery of one municipal hospital in Seoul. For the experimental group, a 50-minute education on newborn care using video, verbal education, demonstration and practice were provided prior to discharge. Fathers' knowledge and confidence in newborn care and their satisfaction with the education program were measured at postpartum one month.

The fathers in the experimental group showed significantly higher knowledge (t=-4.51, p<.001), and confidence in newborn care (t=-2.29, p=.026) compared to the control group at postpartum one month. Fathers in the experimental group had a satisfaction score of 27.37±2.73 immediately after the education, and 25.30±3.40 at postpartum one month.

Results indicate that newborn care education for first-time fathers is an effective method in enhancing the level of knowledge and confidence in newborn care. It can be used in the nursery department before discharge as a useful nursing intervention.

This study was done to identify pain perception (P-PER) by nurses and pain expression (P-EXP) by patients in critical care units (ICUs) and degree of agreement between nurses' P-PER and patients' P-EXP.

Nurses' P-PER was measured with a self-administered questionnaire completed by 99 nurses working in ICUs during May, 2013. Patients' P-EXP was measured with the Critical Care Non-Verbal Pain Scale through observations of 31 ICU patients during nine nursing procedures (NPs) performed between May and July, 2013.

Nurses' P-PER was from 4.49 points for nasogastric tube (NGT) insertion to 0.83 for blood pressure (BP) measurement based on a 9-point scale, Patients' P-EXP was 4.48 points for NGT to 0.18 for BP measurement based on a 10-point scale. Eight NPs except oral care showed higher scores for nurses' P-PER than for patients' P-EXP. Position change (p=.019), subcutaneous injection (p<.001), blood sugar test (p<.001), and BP measurement (p<.001) showed significant differences between nurses' P-PER and patients' P-EXP.

Nasogastric tube (NGT) insertion was scored highest by both nurses and patients. Eight NPs except 'oral care' showed nurses' P-PER was higher or similar to patients' P-EXP, which indicates that nurses may overestimate procedural pain experienced by patients.

This study was done to evaluate the effects of psychosocial interventions on cortisol and immune response in adult patients with cancer.

MEDLINE via PubMed, Cochrane Library CENTRAL, EMBASE, CINAHL and domestic electronic databases were searched. Twenty controlled trials (11 randomized and 9 non-randomized trials) met the inclusion criteria with a total of 862 participants. Methodological quality was assessed using the Cochrane's Risk of Bias for randomized studies and the Risk of Bias Assessment tool for non randomized studies. Data were analyzed using the RevMan 5.2.11 program of Cochrane library.

Overall, study quality was moderate to high. The weighted average effect size across studies was -0.32 (95% CI [-0.56, -0.07], p=.010, I²=45%) for cortisol concentration, -0.62 (95%CI [-0.96,-0.29], p<.001, I²=0%) for T lymphocyte (CD3) and -0.45 (95%CI [-0.74, -0.16], p=.003, I²=0%) for Th lymphocyte (CD4) numbers. Psychosocial interventions were not effective for Tc lymphocyte (CD4), NK cell, monocyte, and cytokine response.

Although these results provide only small evidence of successful immune modulation, they support the conclusion that psychosocial interventions can assist cancer patients in reducing emotional distress and improving immune response.