Perceived exercise barriers and their associations with regular exercise across three age groups of rural women in Taiwan.

The purposes of the study were to explore the differences in perceived exercise barriers across three age groups of Taiwanese rural women (30-50, 51-70, and >70 years old) and to examine the associations between perceived exercise barriers and regular exercise behavior. A total of 227 women completed the Self-Reported Exercise Behavior and the Perceived Exercise Barrier Scale. Women older than 70 reported higher physical and psychological barriers and lower administrative barriers than did the younger group. Women who did not exercise regularly tended to have a higher perception of exercise barriers.

Effects of a workplace multiple cardiovascular disease risks reduction program.

PURPOSE: Interventions targeting multiple risk behaviors have the potential to offer greater health benefits on public health. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of a Workplace Multiple Cardiovascular Disease Risks Reduction Program (WMCVDRRP) on male participants at high risk for cardiovascular disease. METHODS: One group pretest-posttest design was applied in this study. No control group was assigned as this study was the first one in Taiwan conducted to promote participants' health using WMCVDRRP and thus with the nature of a pilot study. The program design was based on the collaboration between the health clinic at the corporation and a nursing school targeting six health behaviors. Of the 465 individuals who participated, data from 283 participants were included in the analysis. The change in any of six health behaviors and eight physical indicators were tested as the effect of the WMCVDRRP. RESULTS: Nearly 40% of the participants improved their regular exercise, diet control, stress management, and medication adherence. Although the improvement in drinking behaviors did not show statistical significance, 21% of the participants changed in alcohol consumption and 21% quit smoking. Eight physical indicators including systolic and diastolic blood pressure, total cholesterol, triglyceride, body mass index, waist-hip ratio, body fat, and muscle weight improved significantly. CONCLUSION: Dual collaboration between the industry and nursing schools could establish a cost-effective program to improve health behaviors and health status of participants.

Service needs of residents in community-based long-term care facilities in northern Taiwan.

AIM: The purpose of this study was to quantify the service needs of residents in community-based long-term care (LTC) facilities and to determine their predictors. BACKGROUND: Disabled older family members in Taiwan are often eventually sent to community-based LTC facilities. Many service needs of these residents are likely to go unmet. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey was used. This involved purposive sampling of 132 residents from 10 LTC facilities in Taipei City. A previously developed LTC service need assessment scale was used to collect information about the residents' needs in terms of five kinds of LTC services, namely health education, skilled nursing services, referral services, activities of daily living (ADL) assistance and instrumental activities of daily living assistance. RESULTS: The mean age of residents was 75.2 years. The average period of institutionalization was 21.93 months. Overall, 70% of the residents had either complete or partial ADL function dependency. Among the specific ADL function dependencies of the residents, inability to take a bath was the most common. The most significant predictors of service needs were health status, age, number of children, number of medical diagnoses and whether the stay is self-choice. These combined variables explained between 25.5% and 41.6% of the variance of the need for LTC services. CONCLUSION: The findings of this study show that age, health status, number of children, number of medical diagnoses and whether the stay is self-choice are significant determinants of residents' needs in terms of LTC. Assessment of the extent to which facilities meet the residents' needs is the first step in providing the most cost-effective allocation of scarce resources. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: It is suggested that, if reimbursement by the National Health Insurance system of physician visits, including psychiatric visits, to LTC facilities were allowed, this would improve quality of care.