Health Habit, Perceived Health Status and Physical Health Status of Young Korean and Korean-Chinese Women: A Comparative Study

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to compare health habit, physical health status, and perceived health status between young Korean and Korean-Chinese women. METHODS: This study was conducted as a cross-sectional comparative survey. For this study, 114 Korean women were recruited in Seoul, South Korea and 64 Korean-Chinese women in Jilin Province, China through convenience sampling. RESULTS: A positive correlation was found between health habit and perceived health status. Perceived health status, WHR, body density, flexibility, and muscle endurance were significantly lower in Korean women than in Korean-Chinese ones. Knee flexion and ankle dorsal flexion was significantly higher in Korean women than in Korean-Chinese ones. CONCLUSION: Further investigation is required to compare the two different groups that share the same ethnicity and similar culture but were born into different countries. A study such as this may provide answers regarding the influence of migrated transition on health.

Exercise Performance and Exercise-related Factors of Korean and Korean-Chinese Nursing Students: A comparative Study

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to compare exercise performance with related factors between Korean and Korean-Chinese nursing students. METHODS: This study used a cross-sectional comparative survey method. One hundred sixty five Korean nursing students in Seoul, South Korea and 161 Korean-Chinese nursing students in Yanbian, China were recruited through convenience sampling. They were at the age of 19-26. Exercise performance and exercise-related factors were measured using the exercise performance degree scale and the scales of self-efficacy, perceived barriers, perceived benefits, and affection related to exercise. RESULTS: No significant difference in exercise performance was seen between the two groups. Self-efficacy and perceived benefits related to exercise performance were significantly higher in the Korean nursing students than in the Korean-Chinese nursing students. However, there were no significant differences in affection and perceived barriers related to exercise. CONCLUSION: We suggest that the reasons for the differences in self-efficacy and in perceived benefits between these two groups need to be explored though future studies. We suggest more studies comparing different groups having the same ethnicity as Korean but who were born into different societies to give answers regarding the influence of immigrated transition on health.

The Effects of Solution-Focused Group Counseling on the Stress Response and Coping Strategies in the Delinquent Juveniles / 간호학회지

PURPOSE: This study was conducted to examine the effects of solution-focused group counseling on the general stress, stress response and coping in the delinquent juveniles. METHOD: The subjects consisted of a convenience samlple of 60 delinquent juveniles who had been placed under probation in Kwang-ju, and recruited from Oct., 2000 to Dec., 2000. Solution-focused group counseling was conducted for the experimental group once a week for 120 to 180 minutes for 6 week. The control group received no group session. For both groups the level of general stress, stress response and coping were measured before and after the experiment. RESULT: General stress significantly decreased in the experimental group and increased in the control group, but showed no significant difference between the two groups. Stress response decreased significantly in the experimental group and increased in the control group, but showed no significant difference between the two groups. The problem-focused coping significantly increased in the experimental group and decreased in the control group, and showed a significant difference between the two groups. The emotion-focused coping significantly decreased in the experimental group and increased in the control group, and showed no significant difference between the two groups. CONCLUSION: This study showed that solution-focused group-counselling has a positive effect on variables like the general stress, stress response, emotion-focused coping and problem-focused coping. Further study needs to be conducted to verify results.

The Effect of Dance Therapy on Pulmonary and Cognitive Function in the Elderly / 간호학회지

This study was done to explore the effects of dance therapy on pulmonary and cognitive functions in the elderly. The design of this study was a non-equivalent pre-post test experiment. The subjects consisted of elderly persons living in a facility located in Kyoungi-Do. Fifty eight subjects had normal cognition, sensory function and resting blood pressure. They underwent tests of pulmonary and cognitive function as baseline data before dance therapy, and at 6th week and at the end of 12nd week after following dance therapy. Twenty seven elderly persons were assigned to the experimental group and participated with the dance therapy. This therapy was based on the Marian Chace's dance therapy and Korean traditional dance with music. The dance therapy consisted of 50 minutes session, 3 times a week for 12 weeks. One session consisted of warming-up, expression, catharsis, sharing and closing stage. the intensity of the dance therapy was at the 40% of age-adjusted maximum heart rates. Data were analyzed with mean, standard deviation, Chi-square test, unpaired t-test, repeated measures ANOVA, and Bonferroni multiple regression using SAS program. The results were as follows: 1. Pulmonary function(forced expiratory volumn at one second and forced vital capacity) of the experimental subjects significantly increased over time more than that of the control subjects. 2. The experimental group had significantly higher score for pulmonary function than the control group at the 12nd week after dance therapy. 3. Cognitive function of the experimental subjects significantly increased over time more than that of the control subjects. 4. The experimental group had significantly higher score for cognitive function than the control group at the 6th week and 12nd week after dance therapy. The findings showed the dance therapy could be effective in improving the pulmonary and cognitive function of the elderly.