This study was to describe nurses' research activities, perceptions and performances of evidence-based practice and barriers to the use of research evidence in nursing practice in Korea.

A cross-sectional survey design was used. A questionnaire, except for Barriers Scale, was developed for the study. Data was collected from a convenient sample of 437 registered nurses working at research and education oriented university hospitals.

Nurses' research-related activities were relatively low compared to previous studies. Also perceptions and performances of evidence based nursing practice were low. Preferred informational resources for clinical decision making were identified as ward manuals/clinical guidelines, manager/senior nurses, and literature/research. The major barriers to research utilization were a lack of implication for practice along with inadequate facilitation to implement research evidence and difficulty understanding research written in English. Priorities of barriers factor were Administrator, Communication, Adopter, and Research.

The findings provide directions for future training, education, and managerial policy to achieve successful evidence based nursing practice.

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 conducted to examine whether the level of classification for long-term care service under long-term care insurance reflects resource utilization level for residents in nursing homes.

From 2 long-term care facilities, the researchers selected 95 participants and identified description and time of care services provided by nurses, certified caregivers, physical therapists and social workers during a 24-hr-period.

Resource utilization level was: 281.04 for level 1, 301.05 for level 2 and 270.87 for level 3. Resource utilization was not correlated with level. Differences in resource utilization within the same level were similar with the coefficient of variance, 22.7-27.1%. Physical function was the most influential factor on long-term care scores (r=.88, p<.001). The level for long-term care service did not reflect differences in resource utilization level of residents on long-term care insurance.

The results of this study indicate that present grading for long-term care service needs to be reconsidered. Further study is needed to adjust the long-term care classification system to reflect the level of resource utilization for care recipients on the long-term care insurance.

The purpose of this study was to describe the current status of utilization and costs of home health nursing care by the levels of medical institutes in Korea.

A secondary analysis of existing data was used from the national electronic data information(EDI) of 148 home health agencies for 6 months from May to Oct 2005 in total.

The 148 agencies had multiple services in cerebral infaction, essential hypertension, sequela of cerebrovascular disease, type 2 diabetes mellitus, etc.. The highest 10 rankings of 76 categories of home health nursing services were composed of 96.4% of the total services, such as simple treatment, inflammatory treatment, urethra & bladder irrigation, inserting indwelling catheter etc., in that order. The highest 20 rankings of 226 categories of home examination services were composed of 77.0% of the total home examination services. In addition, the average cost of home health care per visit was 46,088 Won (≒48 $, 1 $=960 Won). The costs ranged from 74,523 Won (≒78 $, loss of chronic kidney function, N18) to 32,270 Won (≒34 $, other cerebrovascular diseases, I67).

Results suggest that client characteristics of hospital based HHNC are not different from community based HHNC or visiting nursing services for elderly. The national results will contribute to baseline data used to establish a policy for the home health nursing care system and education.