The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a daily life-based physical activity enhancement program performed by middle-aged women at risk for cardiovascular disease.

This study used a randomized control group pretest-posttest design. Middle-aged women aged 45 to 64 were recruited from two outpatient cardiology departments, and randomly assigned to an experimental group (n=28) and a control group (n=30). For the experimental group, after providing one-on-one counseling and education, we provided customized text messages to motivate them in daily life. To monitor the practice of physical activity, they also used an exercise diary and mobile pedometer for 12 weeks. Subjects' physical activities (MET-min/week) were measured using the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ). Their physiological data were obtained by blood tests using a portable analyzer, and the data were analyzed using the SPSS 21.0/WIN program.

There were significant differences in exercise self-efficacy, health behavior, IPAQ score, body fat, body muscle, and fasting blood sugar between the two groups. However, there were no significant differences in total cholesterol, hemoglobin A1c, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and waist-to-hip ratio.

Strengthening physical activity in daily life without being limited by cost burden and time and space constraints. Therefore, it is essential to motivate middle-aged women at risk for cardiovascular disease to practice activities that are easily performed in their daily lives.

We aimed to examine the effects of an integrated physical activity (PA) program developed for physically inactive workers on the theoretical basis of the PRECEDE-PROCEED model.

Participants were 268 workers in three departments of L manufacturing unit in South Korea. The three departments were randomly allocated into integration (n=86) (INT), education (n=94) (ED), and control (n=88) (CT) groups. The INT group received self-regulation, support, and policy-environmental strategies of a 12-week integrated PA program, the ED group received self-regulation strategies only, and the CT group did not receive any strategies. After 12 weeks, process evaluation was conducted by using the measures of self-regulation (autonomous vs. controlled regulation), autonomy support, and resource availability; impact evaluation by using PA measures of sitting time, PA expenditure, and compliance; and outcome evaluation by using the measures of cardiometabolic/musculoskeletal health and presenteeism.

Among process measures, autonomous regulation did not differ by group, but significantly decreased in the CT group (p=.006). Among impact measures, PA compliance significantly increased in the INT group compared to the CT group (p=.003). Among outcome measures, the changes in cardiometabolic/musculoskeletal health and presenteeism did not differ by group; however, systolic blood pressure (p=.012) and a presenteeism variable (p=.041) significantly decreased only in the INT group.

The integrated PA program may have a significant effect on increases in PA compliance and significant tendencies toward improvements in a part of cardiometabolic health and presenteeism for physically inactive workers. Therefore, occupational health nurses may modify and use it as a workplace PA program.

This study was to evaluate the effects of a physical activity reinforcement program on exercise compliance, depression, and anxiety in continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis(CAPD) patients.

A nonequivalent control group with a pre-post test was designed. Data collection was done from December, 2002 to June, 2003 at a hoapital. The degree of depression and anxiety of the patients was assessed by the score of SCL-90-R, and exercise compliance was measured by exercise period, frequency, time and intensity. The experimental group was composed of 19 participants who were educated based on an exercise education protocol and carried out walking exercises two to four times a week after hearing verbal persuasion biweekly through the telephone or a face-to-face interview for 12 weeks, while 17 participants in control group received no intervention.

1. The experimental group showed significant improvement in self-efficacy of exercise compliance (U=79.00, p=.01), exercise period (χ²=20.84, p=.00), exercise frequency (χ²=9.03, p=.01), exercise time (χ²=9.03, p=.01) and exercise intensity (χ²=11.09, p=.00) compared to those of the control group. 2. The experimental group showed a lower depression score (U=84.50, p=.01) than the results of the control group. 3. However, there were no changes in anxiety level compared to the control group.

The physical activity reinforcement program was found to have an effect on exercise compliance and the depression score of CAPD patients. The results provided evidence for the importance of physical activity and verbal persuasion in CAPD patients.

This study identified effects of dietary and physical activity interventions including dietary interventions or physical activity interventions alone or combined dietary-physical activity interventions to improve symptoms in metabolic syndrome including abdominal obesity, high triglycerides, low high density lipoprotein cholesterol, elevated blood pressure, and elevated fasting glucose through meta-analysis.

Articles on metabolic syndrome X published from 1988 to 2013 were searched through electronic databases, Google Scholar, and reference reviews. Methodological quality was assessed by the checklist, SIGN (Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network).

In the meta-analysis, there were 9 articles reporting 13 interventions with 736 participants. Using random effect models, the dietary and/or physical activity interventions showed a lower mean difference in waist circumference ( - 1.30 cm, 95% CI: - 2.44~ - 0.15, p =.027). The combined dietary-physical activity interventions showed a lower mean difference in waist circumference ( - 2.77 cm, 95% CI: - 4.77~ - 0.76, p =.007) and systolic blood pressure ( - 5.44 mmHg, 95% CI: - 10.76~ - 0.12, p =.044). Additionally, interventions of over 24 weeks yielded a lower mean difference in waist circumference ( - 2.78 cm, 95% CI: - 4.69~ - 0.87, p =.004) and diastolic blood pressure ( - 1.93 mmHg, 95% CI: - 3.63~ - 0.22, p =.026).

The findings indicate that dietary and/or physical activity interventions for metabolic syndrome reduce central obesity with no adverse effects. This finding provides objective evidences for dietary and physical activity management on metabolic syndrome as an efficient intervention.

This study was done to investigate the motivational, physical and affective benefits of exergaming in community dwelling older adult women.

The research design was a nonequivalent control group pre-test and post-test design. Sixty-one older adult women over the age of 65 were recruited from 6 community senior centers to participate in the 8 week exercise intervention or control group. Six centers were divided into one of three groups: exergame, qigong exercise, or control. The exergame and the qigong exercise group received 16 sessions, scheduled twice a week, with each session lasting 50 minutes. Test measures were completed before and after the 8 week intervention period for all participants. Measures included: Grip strength, chair stand, 6 m walking, balance, geriatric depression scale, vitality and intrinsic motivation.

There were significant improvements in the exergame and qigong exercise group for grip strength, chair stand, 6m walking, balance, vitality and intrinsic motivation at the end the 8-week program compared with the control group.

The exergame could be an effective alternative for older adult women to group exercise classes.

This study was done to assess the level of physical activity among Chinese immigrant women and to determine the relationships of physical activity with individual characteristics and behavior-specific cognition.

A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted with 161 Chinese immigrant women living in Busan. A health promotion model of physical activity adapted from Pender's Health Promotion Model was used. Self-administered questionnaires were used to collect data during the period from September 25 to November 20, 2012. Using SPSS 18.0 program, descriptive statistics, t-test, analysis of variance, correlation analysis, and multiple regression analysis were done.

The average level of physical activity of the Chinese immigrant women was 1,050.06±686.47 MET-min/week and the minimum activity among types of physical activity was most dominant (59.6%). As a result of multiple regression analysis, it was confirmed that self-efficacy and acculturation were statistically significant variables in the model (p<.001), with an explanatory power of 23.7%.

The results indicate that the development and application of intervention strategies to increase acculturation and self-efficacy for immigrant women will aid in increasing the physical activity in Chinese immigrant women.

This study was done to identify the impact of physical activity on healthcare utilization among Korean adults.

Drawing from the 2008 Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES IV-2), data from 6,521 adults who completed the Health Interview and Health Behavior Surveys were analyzed. Association between physical activity and healthcare utilization was tested using the χ²-test. Multiple logistic regression analysis was used to calculate the odds ratios of using outpatient and inpatient healthcare for different levels of physical activity after adjusting for predisposing, enabling, and need factors. A generalized linear model applying a negative binomial distribution was used to determine how the level of physical activity was related to use of outpatient and inpatient healthcare.

Physically active participants were 16% less likely to use outpatient healthcare (OR, 0.84; 95% CI, 0.74-0.97) and 23% less likely to use inpatient healthcare (OR, 0.77; 95% CI, 0.63-0.93) than physically inactive participants. Levels of outpatient and inpatient healthcare use decreased as levels of physical activity increased, after adjusting for relevant factors.

An independent association between being physically active and lower healthcare utilization was ascertained among Korean adults indicating a need to develop nursing intervention programs that encourage regular physical activity.

This study was done to identify correlates and variables predicting daily activity among elders with Diabetes Mellitus (DM).

Seventy-six elders registered in the Department of Endocrine Medicine at C university hospital participated in data collection. Data on daily activity and biochemical variables were collected via actigraph accelerator (Actical) and blood tests between September 2009 and July 2010. Data analysis was done using SPSS WIN 15.0 program and included one-way ANOVA, independent t-test, Pearson correlation coefficients, and stepwise multiple regression.

This study showed a positive correlation between daily activity and High Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol (HDL-C) and a negative correlation among Total Cholesterol (TC), Triglyceride (TG), and Low Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol (LDL-C). The variables predicting daily activity were frequency of exercise, HDL-C, and TC. These factors accounted for 40.0% of the variance of daily activity in elders with DM.

The results indicate that it is necessary to improve daily activity to reduce Fasting Blood Glucose (FBG), TC, and TG in elders with DM.

The aim of this study was to compare the predictors of physical activity between urban and rural dwelling Korean older adults.

This study was a cross-sectional descriptive survey. A self-report questionnaire or face to face interviews were used to collect data from 336 older adults (urban: 129, rural: 207) who visited public health centers or welfare centers in 2008.

About half of the participants (urban: 50.4%, rural: 47.3%) were classified as the minimally active group. Cognitive function (odds ratio [OR]=1.106, p=.004) and loneliness (OR=0.965, p=.044) were predicting factors for physical activity in rural elderly. Age (OR=0.326, p=.037), gender (OR=2.841, p=.021) and depression (OR=0.799, p<.001) were significant factors predicting physical activity in urban elders.

These findings provide information that is relevant in designing interventions to enhance physical activity in older adults. There is a need to develop effective mutifaceted physical activity interventions that include reducing psychological barriers such as depression, loneliness.

The purpose of this study was to identify the relationship between physical activity and sleep patterns of the elderly.

The subjects of this study were 154 elderly who visited a community senior center in Korea. Data was collected by an interview and a self reported questionnaire, during the period from June to October, 2006. Physical activity was measured by IPAQ Korean version (2006), and sleep pattern by Korean Sleep Scale A developed by Oh et al. (1998).

The prevalence of chronic illness in the subjects was 73.4 %. The mean time of vigorous activity was 6.62±31.27 minutes/day during the past week. Moderate activity time was 28.85±50.31 minutes/day and walking time was 28.85±50.3 minutes/day. The total sleep time was 397.63±111.53 minutes/day. Physical activity of the elderly significantly correlated with sex, chronic illness, job, and sleep patterns of the elderly. Stepwise multiple regression analysis revealed that the most powerful predictor of sleep pattern was the satisfaction of sleep. A combination of the number of chronic illnesses, moderate physical activities (MET), and total time of sleep accounted for 44.4% of the sleep pattern.

Moderate physical activity is more effective than vigorous physical activity for improving the sleep quality of the elderly.

The purpose of this study was to retrospectively describe the childhood sports activity level of Korean adult men and women and to determine whether a higher level of childhood sports activity was positively associated with adult bone mineral density.

A cross-sectional study of 100 Korean men (n=40) and women (n=60) was completed. Participants completed a detailed lifetime sports activity questionnaire and had their bone mineral density of the femur and lumbar spine measured using dual energy x-ray densitometry (DEXA). All sports activities were classified into four categories of peak strain score on the basis of ground reaction forces (GRF).

During the age of high school, women and men who participated in a high intensity sports activity demonstrated higher bone density in the femur site after adjustment for the effects of body weight, fat body mass, lean body mass, the level of calcium intake, and breast feeding period than those who did not participate in sports activity at all.

These results highlight the need to participate in high intensity sports activity during high school age as a means of increasing peak bone mass in the femur site.