This study was designed to develop and test a model of the theoretical structure of factors influencing womens' attitudes toward menstruation, specifically, premenstrual discomfort or pain, negative affect, disability and role acceptance. The conceptual framework wa3 built through are view of the literature. For the purpose of testing the model, data were collected from April to June, 1992 with the use of Menstrual Distress Questionnaire, Menstrual Attitude Questionnaire, Sex Role Acceptance Scale. Data analysis was done with the SPSS PC+ for descriptive statistics and PC-LISREL 7.13 for covariance structure. The study subjects consisted of 320 women college students in 2 three-year nursing junior colleges and 1 department of nursing of a college of medicine. The mean age of the subjects was 19, the mean age at menarch was 13.7, the mean menstrual cycle was 29.7 days and the mean menstrual duration was 5.3 days. The amount of menstrual discharge was moderate and the menstrual cycle variability was within 3 days. The score for pain, negative affect and disability were higher during the perimenstrual period than intermenstrual period. The fit of the hypothetical model with the six paths and the empirical data was high [X2(df=4) =. 57 (P=.966), GFI=.999, AGFI=.997, RMR=.008]. The hypotheses were supported on acceptable level of significance. 1) The higher the pain and negative affect, the stronger the disability. 2) The higher the pain, negative affect and disability, the more negative the attitudes toward menstruation. 3) The lower the women's role acceptance, the more negative the attitudes toward menstruation. The model was supported by the empirical data, and thus these results may help nurses and nursing scientists to understand and support these phenomena of womens' health experience.

Advanced countries such as the USA and Japan are eagerly seeking ways to improve health and welfare of the elderly. One of the services is home health care service using the telephone. Various types of services using the telephone have been developed, improved and are being utilized ranging from the basic consulting to emergency response systems in the area of health care for the elderly. A demonstration project was launched to study the feasibility of a consulting system and telemedicine for the elderly using the public phone system in Korea. For this project, a gathering site for the elderly was selected and those who visited this place were interviewed to find out what kinds of services they wanted and what kind of system they needed to provide the required services. Based on the users' requests and the surrounding environment, a telephone consulting facility was established at the Research Institute of Nursing Science at Seoul National University and consulting personnel was recruited, trained and posted at the center. An Application program for home health care nurses to use when they visited the patients at their homes was developed. This system operates on a notebook Computer and allows nurses to communicate with a doctor at a local hospital through a modem and telecommunication line. These systems were implemented for three months and problems which developed during operation of the systems were identified and progressively modified. Through system evaluation, it was found that a consulting system using phone service will be an invaluable system for the welfare of the elderly in the future. But in order to meet the elderly's need, more services than mere consultation are needed. That is, communication with physicians and hospitals are needed. Thus, when there is any need for physicians' attention, physicians or hospitals should be contacted directly. Similarly for telemedicine, when the home health care nurse visits elderly patients she can assess the patient's problem and provide nursing care, access a physician or hospital to refer her patient to or consult directly using the telecommunication the system. The above mentioned system is a basic form of futuristic telemedicine for the elderly and those who have chronic disease problems. This kind of system will be of great value when it is used on the national information super-high ways in the future. In order to get to that stage, of course, this project needs great improvement in the technical, academic, and legal aspects.

Due to the rapid socioeconomic develoment and the introduction of the national health insurance system, the general population's need for health care and utilization of health care services have increassed dramatically. As a result of this change. Korea is experiencing a shortage of health care facilities and health manpower, and this leads long waiting line at doctor's offices. One of the solutions of this problem could be home health care system for those who have minor health related problems. With this background, this study was conducted to look at the feasibility of a home-based prenatal care system using information superhighway and nursing informatics specialists. With the home-based prenatal care system, the pregnant woman checks her blood pressure, tests her urine for sugar and protein, and measures her body weight at home and sends the information to a hospital computer via the information networks such as public telephone line and information superhighway. Nursing informatics specialist at the hospital will go through each patient record and screen those who have abnormal values and notify them to see a doctor as soon as possible. Besides telemonitoring features, the proposed system will include tele-education capabilities for the patients so that patient can learn whatever they need to know ragarding the prenatal care via information networks. If this system develops and operates, patient can save time in terms of travel to and from the hospital and waiting time in the hospital. And the health care institute can utilize its resource more efficiently.

PURPOSE: This research study explores the job stress, job satisfaction, and health of women who works in the professional work place and identify the influence of the job stress and job satisfaction on the mental health status focused on the social and psychological structure of the workplace. METHOD: 535 participants of registered nurses and teachers from 10 General Hospitals and 15 Middle and High School located in Seoul, Korea were completed the modified version of the short form Work-family stress inventory of questionnaire as used for job stress and mental health problems and perceived overall health status and job satisfaction. RESULT: Job stress was significantly correlated with job satisfaction, overall health, and mental health. There were also significant group differences in job stress and job satisfaction between nurses and teachers. Multiple regression only moderately supported the effect of job stress and job satisfaction on the mental health of professional working women. Also marital status demonstrated a significant factor of group differences in job stress, work-family stress, job satisfaction, and mental health problem. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that job stress in the work place has profound impact on job satisfaction and health of women who work in the professional job. This study also identified major sources and types of work-related stress on women's health which should be considered in a management for health promotion.

Management of perimenstrual discomfort could be an effective strategy for women's health promotion. This study was designed to develop and test the nursing intervention program for the reduction of the perimenstrual discomfort. The data were collected from a group of 76 female university students(34 in the intervention group, 42 in the control group) during November 20, 1997 and March 10, 1998. Measurements were taken concerning perimenstrual discomfort, self care behavior, and perimenstrual discomfort from both groups, at pre and post intervention. Intervention program involves education, support, counselling, and relaxation training, via individual and group levels over a twelve- week period. Listed are the summarized results: 1. The intervention group had more knowledge concerning perimenstrual discomfort(t=2.290, p=.025), self care behavior(t=3.198, p=.000), and lower perimenstrual discomfort score(t=-4.446, p=.000) than the control group at post intervention. 2. The intervention group showed an enhancement on the knowledge on perimenstural discomfort(t=2.35, p=.025), and decreased the perimenstrual discomfort score(t=-7.36, p=.000). However change of self care behavior was not significant during the intervention. According to this study a developed nursing intervention program is effective for reduction of the perimenstrual discomfort. For a future research, it is necessary that experiments concerning menstruation, and a correlational study of perimensturual discomfort and stress will be performed.