This study was to identify knowledge, perception and health behavior about metabolic syndrome for an at risk group in a rural community area.

A descriptive cross-sectional survey design was used. A total of 575 adults with hypertension, diabetes mellitus, dyslipidemia, and/or abdominal obesity were recruited from 11 rural community health care centers. A questionnaire was developed for this study. Anthropometric measures were measured and blood data was reviewed from the health record.

Knowledge about the metabolic syndrome was low as evidenced by only a 47% correct answer rate. Only 9% of the subjects ever heard about the disease, and 87% answered they do not know the disease at all. 87% of the subjects were not performing regular exercise, 31% drank alcohol more than once a month, 12.5% were current smokers, and 33.6% are did not have a regular health check-up.

Development of systematic public health care programs are needed to prevent future increases in cardiovascular complications and to decrease health care costs. These might include educational programs for the primary health care provider and an at risk group, a therapeutic lifestyle modification program, and a health screening program to identify potential groups.

The purpose of this study is to provide a comprehensive overview of the various measures available for assessment of oxaliplatin-induced peripheral neuropathy (OXLIPN) and to evaluate the measurement properties of each assessment tool.

A systematic review was conducted to identify existing measures for OXLIPN found in the databases of PubMed, Cochrane Library, Embase, RISS and KoreaMed. The quality of the 24 identified tools was evaluated based on their properties of measurement including content validity, internal consistency, criterion validity, construct validity, reproducibility, responsiveness, floor-ceiling effects and interpretability.

Ten (41.7%) of the 24 tools were identified as specific measures for assessing OXLIPN and the most popular type of measures were clinical grading systems by clinicians (58.3%) and only 29.2% of measures were identified as patient reported outcomes. The most frequently used tool was National Cancer Institute-Common Toxicity Criteria (NCI-CTC), but the validity of NCI-CTC has not been reported appropriately. Overall, the Neuropathic Pain Symptom Inventory (NPSI) received the best psychometric scores, and the Chemotherapy-induced Peripheral Neuropathy Assessment Tool (CIPNAT) and Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy/Gynaecologic Oncology Group-neurotoxicity-12 (FACT/GOG-Ntx-12) followed NPSI.

To select appropriate measure, evidences should be accumulated through the clinical use of tools. Therefore, practitioner and researchers are urged to report relevant statistics required for the validation of the currently used measures for assessment of OXLIPN.

The purpose of this study was to examine validity and reliability of Webel and colleagues' HIV Self-Management Scale when used with a Korean sample.

The original 20-item HIV Self-Management Scale was translated into Korean using translation and back-translation. Nine HIV nurse experts tested content validity. Principal component analysis (PCA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) of data from 203 patients was used to test construct validity. Concurrent validity was evaluated using correlation with patients' self-rating as a "smart patient" measured using a visual analogue scale. Internal consistency was tested by Cronbach's alpha coefficients.

All items were rated as having satisfactory content validity. Based on PCA and consideration of conceptual meaning, a three-factor solution was selected, explaining 48.76% of the variance. CFA demonstrated the adequacy of the three-domain structure of the construct HIV self-management: daily self-management health practices, social support and HIV self-management, and chronic nature of HIV self-management. Goodness-of-fit indices showed an acceptable fit overall with the full model (χ²/ df₍₁₆₄₎=1.66, RMSEA=0.06, SRMR=0.05, TLI=0.91, and CFI=0.92). The Korean version of the HIV Self-Management Scale (KHSMS) was significantly correlated with patients' self-rated smart patient (r=.41). The subscale Cronbach's alpha coefficients ranged from .78 to .81; alpha for the total scale was .89.

The KHSMS provides a valid and reliable measure of self-management in Korean patients with HIV. Continued psychometric testing is recommended to provide further evidence of validity with this population.