The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a sleep improvement program combined with an aroma-necklace on sleep, depression, anxiety, and blood pressure in elderly women living at home.

A program consisting of a four-week (one hour per week) sleep improvement intervention plus use of an aroma-necklace, was developed based on Cox's Interaction Model of Client Health Behavior. 70 elderly women were assigned to the experimental (n=35) or control group with no intervention (n=35). Data from 62 participants (32 in the experimental and 30 in the control) were analyzed using the SPSS 21.0 program. Women in the experimental group were instructed to constantly wear the aroma necklace filled with marjoram and orange oil until the program was completed. Sleep quality, sleep duration, sleep satisfaction, depression, anxiety, and blood pressure were measured to identify the effectiveness of the program.

Significant group differences were found in sleep quality (t=-5.10, p<.001), sleep duration (z=-3.10, p=.002), sleep satisfaction (z=-4.13, p=<.001), depression (t=2.53, p=.015), and anxiety (z=-2.47, p=.014). No differences were found in the systolic or diastolic blood pressure.

The results indicate that a sleep improvement program combined with an aroma-necklace was effective in improving sleep disturbances in elderly women living at home. Nurses may contribute to improving sleep among elderly women by applying this program to aged women living in various environments.

This study was done to identify frequency, intensity of urinary dysfunction and daily life distress in women after a radical hysterectomy for cervical cancer.

One hundred and fifty seven women who had undergone a radical hysterectomy and one hundred and sixty five women as healthy controls completed questionnaires on intensity of urinary dysfunction and daily life distress caused by urinary dysfunction.

Women with cervical cancer showed higher frequency of urinary dysfunction than healthy controls. Major urinary dysfunction for women with cervical cancer in order of frequency were night-time incontinence (odds ratio=10.39, p<.001), difficulty in starting urination, weak urine stream and sense of incomplete emptying of bladder. The highest score on intensity was difficulty in starting urination, followed by urgency, weak urine stream, daytime frequency and sense of incomplete emptying. Night-time incontinence was the urinary symptom causing the most daily life distress for cervical cancer women followed by difficulty in starting urination, urgency, sense of incomplete emptying, and night-time frequency.

Results suggest that nurses should address the potential postoperative urinary complications and develop long term interventions to decrease urinary dysfunction and daily life distress for women who have had a radical hysterectomy for cervical cancer.