This study aimed to develop and evaluate the effectiveness of an adapted health literacy self-management intervention for elderly cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy.

The intervention in this study was systematically developed through the six stages of Intervention Mapping Protocol and was based on Fransen et al's causal pathway model. A quasi-experimental trial was conducted on a total of 52 elderly patients (26 in an experimental group and 26 in a control group) undergoing chemotherapy in Korea. The intervention consisted of seven sessions over 5 weeks. The experimental tool for this study was an adapted health literacy self-management intervention, which was designed to promote a reduction in the symptom experience and distress of elderly cancer patients through the promotion of self-management behavior. To develop efficient educational materials, the participants’ health literacy was measured. To educate participants, clear communication and the teach-back method were used. In addition, for the improvement of self-efficacy, four sources were utilized. For the promotion of self-management behavior, five self-management skills were strengthened. Data were collected before and after the intervention from June 4 to September 14, 2018. The data were analyzed with SPSS/WIN 21.0.

Following the intervention, self-management knowledge and behavior and, self-efficacy significantly improved in experimental group. Symptom experience and distress decreased in the experimental group compared to the control group.

The self-management intervention presented in this study was found to be effective in increasing self-management knowledge and behavior and, self-efficacy, and ultimately in reducing symptom experience and distress for elderly patients undergoing chemotherapy.

The aim of this study was to identify the relationship between awareness of nutrition labeling and menstrual cycle irregularity in women from a nationally representative sample of the Korean population.

A cross-sectional analysis was performed using hierarchical multivariable logistic regression analysis models. A total of 4,324 women aged 19~54 years from the 2010~2012 Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey participated in the study. The participants were classified into three groups based on self-report responses to a questionnaire about their awareness of nutrition labels: Reading, Not-Reading, and Not-Knowing Groups.

The Reading, Not-Reading, and Not-Knowing Groups comprised 46.4%, 44.9%, and 8.7% of the participants, respectively, and 53.6% of the participants had never used nutrition labels. In the Not-Knowing Group, irregular menstrual cycles for more than 3 months were significantly more common than women with irregular menstrual cycles for up to 3 months and women with regular menstrual cycles. Women in the Not-Knowing Group were more likely to exhibit menstrual cycle irregularity (adjusted odds ratio: 1.63, 95% confidence interval: 1.10~2.41) compared to women in the Reading Group after adjusting for age, body mass index, smoking status, alcohol intake, exercise regularity, stress, depression, suicidal ideation, metabolic syndrome, age at menarche, parity, and use of oral contraceptives.

No awareness of nutrition labeling appears to be associated with a higher prevalence of menstrual cycle irregularity in a nationally representative group of Korean women.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Korean version of the Alzheimer's Disease Knowledge Scale (ADKS-K) to determine its applicability to Korean adults.

Cross-cultural validity was performed according to Consensus-based Standards for the Selection of Health Measurement Instruments (COSMIN). The Kuder-Richardson Formula 20 for internal consistency and Intraclass Correlation Coefficient (ICC) for test-retest reliability were conducted. Content validity, criterion related validity and construct validity were evaluated. The Classical Test Theory (CTT) model and the Item Response Theory (IRT) model were applied in performing the item analysis.

The KR 20 was .71, and the ICC was .90, indicating that the ADKS-K has internal consistency and stability reliability. Thirty items of the ADKS-K had significant Content Validity Ratio (CVR) values, i.e., mean of 0.82 and range of 0.60~1.00. Mean item difficulty and discrimination indices calculated by TestAn program were 0.63 and 0.23, respectively. Mean item difficulty and discrimination indices calculated by BayesiAn program were -0.60 and 0.77, respectively. These tests indicate that ADKS-K has an acceptable level of difficulty and discriminating efficiency.

Results suggest that ADKS-K has the potential to be a proper instrument for assessing AD knowledge in Korean adults.

This descriptive study was done to identify the relationship between health literacy and health status and to provide basic data for developing nursing interventions for Korean-Chinese elders living in Yanbian, China.

For data collection, intentional sampling of 300 elders was used. The questionnaire was composed of 5 items based on "Ministry of Health, the People's Republic of China (2008)" to measure health literacy, 33 health status items from the "Korean Health Status Measure for Elderly People" developed by Shin (2002), revised for use in China, and 9 general characteristics. Data were analyzed using SPSS Win 13.0 program.

Total level of health literacy was relatively high (68.7%). Elders had high scores for taking medicines according to doctor's instruction, but lower ones for full comprehension through communication with doctors. Health status was high for emotional, physical, and social function in that order. There were significant differences between general characteristics and health status for gender, age, marital status, education, family, smoking, and alcohol consumption in that order. Results of multiple regression analysis for factors influencing health status showed that self-report health level was the most influential, followed by health literacy, age, gender.

Health literacy is the main factor affecting health promotion among minority elders indicating a need to develop health promotion programs for elders who have low health literacy.

The purpose of this study was to understand the level of functional health literacy and its influence on perceived health status in Korean older adults.

A cross-sectional survey was conducted in Daegu, Kyungpook and Busan province. A total of 103 older adults aged 65 yr or older were interviewed in person between July 1 to August 30, 2007.

A high proportion of older adults were unable to read and understand written basic medical instructions. Only 40-50% were able to comprehend directions for taking medication four times a day or on an empty stomach. Only 11-38% were able to understand information regarding treatment procedure, informed consent, or educational material for elderly fall prevention. Individuals who were older, single, and had less education and income were more likely to have lower functional health literacy. After adjusting for sociodemographic variables, individuals with lower health literacy had poorly perceived health status.

Many Korean older adults have a very low level of fuctional literacy. Low health literacy was independently associated with poorly perceived health status.