• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.200-209
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• 2010

Purpose: This study was conducted to determine the effects of a fall prevention program on knowledge, efficacy, and prevention behavior of falls among the low-income elderly. Methods: This study used a nonequivalent control group pre and post test quasi-experimental research design. The study was conducted from August to October, 2008 with 20 subjects in the experimental group and 22 in the control group who were registered at the public health center of S District in D City. Results: Hypothesis 1 "The experimental group that participated in the fall prevention program will show a higher degree of knowledge about falls than the control group" was supported. Hypothesis 2 "The experimental group will have a higher degree of self-efficacy of falls than the control group" was not supported. Hypothesis 3 "The experimental group will report fall prevention behavior more frequently than the control group" was supported. Conclusion: It was verified that the fall prevention program in this study was an effective intervention to improve knowledge about falls and fall prevention behaviors among the low-income elderly. The results can be used as part of an intervention to prevent falls for the vulnerable elderly such as the low-income elderly.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Fundamentals of Nursing
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.269-281
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• 2018

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to build a model to predict the fall prevention behavior of nurses in small and medium sized hospitals. Methods: Participants were 382 nurses from 13 hospitals who responded to the structured self-reported questionnaire. The research model was based on previous study of fall prevention, theory of planned behavior, and the health belief model. Results: The modified model generally showed higher levels than recommended level of model fit indices and acceptable explanation. Of 17 hypothetical paths, 14 were supported. Predicting variables explained 51.6% of fall prevention behavior. The fall prevention behavior of nurses showed a direct influence of fall prevention expectations, fall prevent threats, perceived behavioral control for fall prevention, and intention to prevent falls and an indirect of influence of patient safety culture, attitude toward fall prevention, and the subjective norm. Conclusion: Findings show a need to identify a range of barrier factors to increase the benefits of fall prevention behavior and enhance the perceived control of fall prevention so that nurses will be able to promote fall prevention behavior in hospitals. Also, it is critical to increase awareness of patient safety culture among nurses.

• Quality Improvement in Health Care
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.43-50
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• 2021

Purpose: The aim of this study was to determine the effect of side walking on balance confidence, falls efficacy and fall risk in acute stroke patients. Methods: The study included 14 patients with acute stroke who were randomly allocated to a side walking group (Experimental group, N=7) and a forward walking group (Control group, N=7). Both groups performed the exercise 5 times a week for 2 weeks. Outcomes were assessed using Korean-Activities-specific Balance Confidence Scale (K-ABC), Korean-Fall Efficacy Scale (K-FES), Korean-Fullerton Advanced Balance Scale (K-FAB). Results: After 2 weeks of training, both groups showed significantly improved ABC, FES, FAB (p<.05 in both groups). However, the ABC, FES, FAB in the experimental group was significantly better than in the control group (p<.05). Conclusion: These findings indicate that side walking training may be effective at improving balance confidence and decreasing fall down risk in early stroke patients. Therefore, side walking training may be recommended as an intervention in reducing the incidence of falls in acute stroke patient.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.43 no.5
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• pp.613-625
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• 2013

Purpose: This study was conducted to determine the effects of a fall prevention program on falls, physical function, psychological function, and home environmental safety in frail elders living at home in rural communities. Methods: The design of this study was a nonequivalent control group pre posttest design. The study was conducted from July to November, 2012 with 30 participants in the experimental group and 30 in the control group. Participants were registered at the public health center of E County. The prevention program on falls consisted of laughter therapy, exercise, foot care and education. The program was provided once a week for 8 weeks and each session lasted 80 minutes. Results: The risk score for falls and depression in the experimental group decreased significantly compared with scores for the control group. Compliance with prevention behavior related to falls, knowledge score on falls, safety scores of home environment, physical balance, muscle strength of lower extremities, and self-efficacy for fall prevention significantly increased in the experimental group compared with the control group. Conclusion: These results suggest that the prevention program on falls is effective for the prevention of falls in frail elders living at home.

• Journal of Korean Biological Nursing Science
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.120-127
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• 2009

Purpose: The study aimed at monitoring the immune status of health care workers (HCWs) of a tertiary hospital after accidental exposure to Hepatitis B virus (HBV). Methods: Between January 2004 and December 2006, 353 cases of exposure to Hepatitis B virus were reported. The HBV-exposed HCWs were required to undergo follow-up serum tests to analyze their immune status one year after the exposure. The obtained data were then analyzed to determine the incidence of exposure and of sero-conversion. Results: In this hospital, an average of 9.8 cases of Hepatitis B exposure among HCWs was reported in a month. Follow-up tests conducted after exposure revealed that 90.4% of the HBV-exposed HCWs were positive for Hepatitis B antibody and 66.9% of the HBV-exposed HCWs were reported to have antibody levels exceeding 10 mIU/mL. Results of serum tests for the HBV antigen conducted one year after exposure were negative for all the exposed HCWs. Conclusion: Among the 79.6% of the HCWs who underwent serum tests one year after exposure the HBV sero-conversion rate was 0.0%. However, a further investigation in the form of long-term and multi-center studies is required to confirm this result. Furthermore, an active system should be established to ensure that all exposed HCWs undergo follow-up serum tests.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.520-529
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• 2018

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to identify factors influencing activities-specific balance confidence in community-dwelling older adults. Methods: This is secondary analysis of data from an intervention study for improving cognitive function. The data were collected from March 2 to September 30, 2017 at a senior center. Data of 131 older adults were included for this secondary analysis, and were analyzed by using t-test, ANOVA, and multiple regression. Results: The mean score of activities-specific balance confidence is 65.08 out of a possible range of 0-100. The significant factors affecting activities-specific balance confidence among old adults include 'more than 85 years old', 'waist circumference', 'depressive symptoms', 'activity restriction due to fear of falling', and 'self-rated health' which explained 52.8% of the variance. Conclusion: The study results indicate that psychologic factors as well as physical condition should be considered for interventions to increase activities-specific balance confidence.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.482-491
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• 2006

Purpose: Hemiplegia patients who were attacked by a stroke suffer from hemiplegic disabilities as well as motor disabilities. For them, rehabilitation cure is being carried out broadly. However, it is not enough for them to use the upper extremity than the lower extremity. For the use of the upper extremity, we examined the effect of constraint-induced movement therapy developed in this research on patients who experienced a stroke following hemiplegia. Method: For this study we selected 36 stroke patients who were registered at the community health center through accidental sampling, and assigned 21 of them to the experimental group, and 15 to the control group. The experimental group had constraint-induced movement therapy for 5 days and 7 hours a day from 9 to o'clock in the morning 9 to 4 o'clock in the afternoon 4 including warmup exercise and main exercise in the rehabilitation room, whereas the control group were restricted. Result: As a result of constraint-induced movement therapy, affected side elbow joint flexion range, side shoulder joint extension range and side shoulder joint of the flexion range of motions increased obviously in the experimental group compared to those in the control group. Conclusion: The result above clearly shows that constraint-induced movement therapy is an effective intervention for the rehabilitation of hemiplegia patients in increasing affected side elbow joint of the flexion range of motion, the shoulder joint extension, and the increase of flexion range of motion.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.44 no.6
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• pp.697-707
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• 2014

Purpose: The purposes of this study was to develop a comprehensive community-based fall prevention program and to test the effects of the program on the muscle strength, postural balance and fall efficacy for elderly people. Methods: The design of this study was a nonequivalent control group pretest-posttest design. There were 28 participants in the experimental group and 29 in the control group. The program consisted of balance exercises, elastic resistance exercises and prevention education. The program was provided five times a week for 8 weeks and each session lasted 90 minutes. Data were analyzed using ${\chi}^2$-test, independent t-test and paired t-test using the SPSS program. Results: Muscle strength of the lower extremities, postural balance and fall efficacy scores significantly improved in the experimental group compared to the control group. Conclusion: These results suggest that this program can improve lower extremity muscle strength, postural balance and fall efficacy in elders. Therefore, this program is recommended for use in fall prevention programs for elders living in the community.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.167-178
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• 2011

Purpose: This study was done to identify the effects of a health diary program on fall related outcomes the low-income elderly women. Methods: The study was carried out with a nonequivalent control group with pretest-posttest design. The study was composed of two groups, each made up of 24 subjects: experimental group and control group. The subjects were low-income women aged over 65 years with osteoarthritis and both the experimental and control groups were made up of subjects with the same age profiles. The independent variable was the health diary program, and the dependent variables were fall related outcomes (fear of falling, fall-efficacy, knowledge of fall) difficulty of performing activity, and mood state. The health diary program was performed for 50 minutes each session and twice a week for 8 weeks. Data were collected before the health diary program 10 weeks after the beginning of the program. Results: The experimental group showed significant differences in knowledge of fall, fear of falling, and mood state compared to the control group. However there was no significant differences in difficulty of performing activity and fall efficacy. Conclusion: The results of this study may be used as part of an education to prevent falls for low-income elderly women with osteoarthritis.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.100-107
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• 2015

Purpose: To explore the association between sleep and the risk of accidental injury at school among Korean adolescents. Methods: From the database of the Ninth Korea Youth Risk Behavior Web-based Survey (KYRBS), the researcher selected 63,307 adolescents who responded to a survey on sleep hours. We conducted logistic regression with sleep duration and fatigue after sleep as independent variables, the risk of injury at school as a dependent variable, and gender, grade, school type, economic status, parents' education level, number of participations in physical education, and current smoking and drinking as control variables. Results: Using 9 hours of sleep as the reference, the adjusted injury risk (odds ratio) was 1.74 for those sleeping less than 5 hours a day, 1.61 for 5 hours, 1.45 for 6 hours, 1.31 for 7 hours, 1.13 for 8 hours, and 1.40 for 10 hours or longer. The difference between each pair of groups was statistically significant. In this study, injury risk increased as sleep duration decreased and fatigue after sleep increased. Conclusion: The findings suggest that a short nightly duration of sleep and fatigue after sleep can be considered potential risk factorsfor unintentional injuries at school among Korean adolescents.