Comparison of Needs for Pregnancy and Postpartum Adaptation of Chinese Immigrant Women and Vietnamese Immigrant Women in South Korea / 여성건강간호학회지

PURPOSE: To identify needs for pregnancy and postpartum adaptation of Chinese immigrant women and Vietnamese immigrant women in South Korea. METHODS: A descriptive research design was employed. Data were collected from 244 Chinese immigrant women and Vietnamese immigrant women from 3 provinces, 20 health care centers, and multi-cultural family support centers. Data were analyzed with descriptive statistics, t-test and ANOVA. RESULTS: An average score for needs perceived by Chinese immigrant women was significantly higher than that perceived by Vietnamese immigrant women. There were significantly differences in physical and emotional adaptation after childbirth, nutrition during pregnancy, cross cultural understanding and personal respect, and adaptation daily activity during pregnancy between the 2 groups. The highest score of needs in Chinese immigrant women was for nutrition during pregnancy and that in Vietnamese immigrant women was for baby rearing and family support. CONCLUSION: Based on needs of pregnancy and postpartum adaption, nursing intervention program in consideration of cultural characteristics of Chinese immigrant women and Vietnam immigrant women need to be developed for their pregnancy and postpartum health care.

Stress, Depression and Health Risk Behaviors in Korean Elders

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to investigate stress, depression and health risk behaviors in elderly people. METHODS: The subjects were 238 Korean elders who had visited the convalescent center. The level of stress was measured by the Korean version of BEPSI, which was developed by Bae, Jeung & Yoo (1992) and modified by Yim et al.(1996). CES-D was used to measure the level of depression. For health risk behaviors, we measured cigarette consumption and alcohol drinking during the last one month. RESULTS: Of the subjects, 17.4% were excessive drinkers and 18.9% were currently smokers. The level of stress was between moderate and high, and 62.7% of the subjects were depressed. There were significant differences in stress and depression according to economic status and self-reported health. In addition, depression had positive correlations with stress and QF score. CONCLUSION: Stress and depression management programs for the elderly are needed. These findings indicate that nurses must consider stress and alcohol drinking when they take care of depressed elderly people.