The purpose of this study was designed to identify the effects of heat therapy on dysmenorrhea, heat being provided using a far infrared rays heating element.

The research design for the study was a non-equivalent control group quasi-experimental design. Participants were 22 students for the experimental group, and 26 students for the control group. Data were analyzed using SAS WIN 9.1 program.

The experimental group had significantly lower mean scores for menstrual pain, dysmenorrhea, and blood pressure than those in the control group. However, no significant differences were found between two groups for pulse, respiration, and temperature.

These findings show that thermotherapy was effective for reduction of menstrual pain, dysmenorrhea, and B/P. Therefore, this therapy could be used as a nursing intervention for students with dysmenorrhea.

This descriptive study was conducted to examine the degree of stress, coping styles, communication with the mother and depression between headache-suffering children and headache-free children and to explore predicted factors for headache occurrence in children.

The subjects of this study consisted of 196 headache-free children and 107 headache-suffering children. They were 4th-6th graders of an elementary school in T city. The instruments in this study were David's stressor of children, Lazarus & Folkman's Stress Coping Style, PACI (Parent-Adolescent Communication Inventory) by Barnes & Olsen and Kovac's CDI (Children's depression inventory). Data were collected from May 2 to July 16, 2004.

Total stress(t=-3.76, p=.035), school stress(t=-3.02, p=.001), mass media stress(t=-1.39, p=.029) and depression(t=7.62, p=.001) in headache-suffering children were significantly higher than those of headache-free children. Problem-oriented coping skills (t=1.23, p=.023), and the score of communication with the mother (t=2.32, p=.012) in headache-suffering children were lower than those of headache-free children. Logistic regression analysis (stepwise) showed that the most powerful predictor was stressors in school, followed by depression, stressors in mass media and communication with the mother.

This study revealed that important factors such as the degree of school stress, depression, the degree of mass media stress, communication with the mother and problem-oriented coping skills should be controlled for reducing of headaches in children.

The purpose of this study was to identify the effects of hand acupuncture therapy on intermittent abdominal pain in children.

A quasi experimental pre-test and post (1,2)-test design was used. Data was collected from May, 2002 to February, 2003. Forty children were assigned to the experimental (20) or control group (20). The experimental group received Hand-Acupuncture therapy on the meridian point; A8, A9, A10, A11, A12, E22, E45 for 20 minutes, while the control group rested on the bed. Data was analyzed using the SAS program with Fisher's Exact χ² test, repeated measured ANOVA, and ANCOVA.

In the experimental group, pain intensity (f=63.26, p=0.00), A12(A)(F=60.40, p=0.00), and medication requirement (χ²=32.63, p=0.00) were significantly lower than that of the control group.

These findings indicate that hand acupuncture therapy is effective for reduction of intermittent abdominal pain. Therefore, hand acupuncture therapy can be considered an independent nursing intervention for reducing intermittent abdominal pain.