• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
• /
• v.30 no.3
• /
• pp.271-280
• /
• 2019

Purpose: This study evaluates the efficacy of a Self-Care Reinforcement Program (SCRP) based on the Selection Optimization Compensation (SOC) model, in socially vulnerable elderly women with metabolic syndrome. Methods: This study adopts a pretest-posttest nonequivalent control group design. The participants were 64 socially vulnerable elderly Korean women with metabolic syndrome (experimental group: 31, control group: 33). Participants' body composition analysis, nutrient intake, risk factors of metabolic syndrome, depressive symptoms, and social network were measured. Data were analyzed with an independent t-test; statistical significance levels were set at p<.05. The SCRP, including metabolic syndrome education, nutritional education, exercise, and social network, was performed three times a week for 8 weeks. Results: There were statistically significant differences between the experimental and control groups in terms of systolic blood pressure, diastolic pressure, fasting blood sugar, triglycerides, sodium intake, depressive symptoms, and social networks. Conclusion: The SCRP is effective and can be recommended as a community health nursing intervention for socially vulnerable elderly women with metabolic syndrome.

• Journal of Korean Public Health Nursing
• /
• v.30 no.3
• /
• pp.556-569
• /
• 2016

Purpose: This study aimed to provide baseline data on the health care of children and the demand for visiting health care services in one region in efforts to support the implementation of visiting health care services for vulnerable children. Methods: Seventy-three children and their caregivers from the vulnerable social group and 82 children and their caregivers from the general group were selected as research participants. The data were collected through home visiting survey by professional nurses. Results: Children from the vulnerable social group were at higher risk of poor health care than the general group. Regarding home safety, vulnerable children were more likely to be exposed to unsafe conditions. With respect to nutrition, developmental play, developmental screening test, and home safety, visiting health care services were in demand for caretakers. Conclusion: These results indicate that to promote health care and safety conditions for vulnerable children, it is necessary to implement visiting health care programs that include the management of vaccination, medical check-up, growth and development, home safety, and nutrition. These findings can be used as the baseline data for the development of visiting health care programs for vulnerable children.

• Journal of muscle and joint health
• /
• v.21 no.3
• /
• pp.246-254
• /
• 2014

Purpose: This study aims to provide baseline data on children's health care and household safety management in one region and to support implementation of customized visiting health care services for children. Methods: 51 children and their caregivers from socially vulnerable group and 69 children and their caregivers from general group are selected as research participants. Data were collected through home visiting survey by 10 professional nurses. Results: Children from socially vulnerable group are at higher risks of poor health care and safety accidents in households than general group. Rates of taking developmental screening tests, medical check-up remain considerably low in vulnerable social group. Regarding home safety, vulnerable children are more likely to be exposed to unsafe conditions. Conclusion: These results indicate that in order to promote health care and safety conditions for vulnerable children, it is necessary to implement customized visiting health care programs which actually can reach vulnerable households and meet their demands. These findings can be used as baseline data to develop customized visiting health care programs for children.

• Perspectives in Nursing Science
• /
• v.12 no.1
• /
• pp.23-32
• /
• 2015

Purpose: This study attempted to estimate the need for home visiting nurse at public health centers. Methods: A model was generated to estimate a community's home visiting health service needs in 16 regions and a workload analysis was adopted to estimate the number of required Nurses. Data were collected from 16 public health centers using the South Korean government's open-information systems. Subjects were divided into three groups: vulnerable social group, bottom 10% income group, and bottom 20% income group. Results: The analysis revealed that 2,158 and 6,667 nurses were needed to provide home visiting health service for the bottom 10% and 20% income groups, respectively. It was estimated that for the vulnerable social group, 10,336 nurses were needed to provide home visiting health service, implying that the need-based demand for nurses is well over 5 times the number currently employed. Conclusion: The results indicate that the number of currently employed nurses is insufficient for the health management of vulnerable social groups. The government should consider active employment policies to encourage nurses to apply for home visiting health service.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
• /
• v.48 no.2
• /
• pp.182-194
• /
• 2018

Purpose: This study aimed to estimate the effects of a health mentoring program on fasting blood sugar, total cholesterol, triglyceride, physical activity, self care behavior and social support changes among community-dwelling vulnerable elderly individuals with diabetes. Methods: A non-equivalent control group pre-post-test design was used. Participants were 70 community-dwelling vulnerable elderly individuals with diabetes. They were assigned to the experimental (n=30) or comparative (n=30) or control group (n=28). The experimental group participated in the health mentoring program, while the comparative group participated in health education program, the control group did not participate in any program. Data analyses involved a chi-square test, Fisher's exact test, a generalized linear model, and the Bonferroni correction, using SPSS 23.0. Results: Compared to the control group, the experimental and comparative groups showed a significant decrease in fasting blood sugar, total cholesterol, and triglyceride. Compared to the comparative and control groups, the experimental group showed significant improvement in self care behavior. However, there were no statistical differences in physical activity or social support among the three groups. Conclusion: These findings indicate that the health mentoring program is an effective intervention for community-dwelling vulnerable elderly individuals with diabetes. This program can be used as an efficient strategy for diabetes self-management within this population.

• Health Policy and Management
• /
• v.33 no.2
• /
• pp.118-128
• /
• 2023

Background: Personal socio-economic abilities are crucial as it affects health inequalities. These multidimensional inequalities across the regions have been structured and fixed. This study aimed to analyze health vulnerabilities by regional cluster and identify regional health disparities of self-rated health, using nationally representative cross-sectional data. Methods: This study used personal and regional data. Data from the Community Health Survey 2021 were analyzed. K-means cluster analysis was applied to 250 si-gun-gu using administrative regional data. The clusters were based on three areas: physical environment, health-related behaviors and biological factors, and the psychosocial environment through the conceptual framework for action on the social determinants of health. And binary logistic regression analyses were conducted to examine the differences in self-rated health status by the regional clusters, controlling human biology, environment, lifestyle, and healthcare organization factors. Results: The most vulnerable group was group 3, the moderate vulnerable group was group 1, and the least vulnerable group was group 2. The group 2 was more likely to have high self-rated health status than the moderate vulnerable group (odds ratio [OR], 1.023; p<0.001). And the group 3 showed low self-rated health status than the moderate vulnerable group (OR, 0.775; p<0.001). However, the moderate vulnerable group had significantly higher self-rated health status than the most vulnerable group (group 2: OR, 1.023; p<0.001; group 3: OR, 0.775; p<0.001). Conclusion: These results demonstrate that community members' health status is influenced by regional determinants of health and individual levels. And these contribute to understanding the importance of specific and differentiated interventions like locally tailored support programs considering both individual and regional health determinants.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
• /
• v.24 no.1
• /
• pp.99-109
• /
• 2013

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to identify levels of quality of health-related life (EQ-5D) and its related factors among vulnerable elders receiving home visiting health care services in some rural areas. Methods: The subjects of this study were vulnerable elders aged 65 or higher receiving visiting health care benefits by a public health center in a county. Results: Levels of health-related EQ-5D were high when the subjects were males, their ADL and IADL were high. The EQ-5D of the vulnerable elders and social supports had a positive correlation, while their IADL and depression had a negative correlation with the EQ-5D. We can see that the EQ-5D related factors are variables that have significance influence on gender, subjective health status, BMI, IADL, depression levels, and social support. Conclusion: To improve the EQ-5D of the vulnerable elderly, it needs maintenance of independent IADL levels, social supporting systems using small meeting of the elderly in community. It is necessary to maintain independent IADL levels, enhance social supporting systems including small group gatherings for elders living alone by means of places like community halls, and develop specific intervention programs for the prevention and management of depressive elders.

• Journal of the Korea Safety Management & Science
• /
• v.19 no.2
• /
• pp.15-29
• /
• 2017

In changes of social environment, change of the use of land due to the change of residence type, industry and urban structure is an influential factor to safety vulnerable social group. From PTSD from disaster experience point of view, experience of disaster, damage from disaster, witness of disaster make people experience anxiety and confusion, increase the anxiety toward disaster and lead to difficulty in daily lives. As for the result of analyzing anxiety factors regarding disaster damage potential composed of 20 items of safety manager, damage potential of sink hole which recently rapidly increased was the highest, and followed by anxiety from safety damage potential of family, anxiety from phone call damage. Likewise, if the anxiety toward disaster damage potential is digitized, it contributes to setting safety management planning for disaster prevention as it visualizes the risk.

• Journal of the Korean Society of School Health
• /
• v.30 no.3
• /
• pp.181-193
• /
• 2017

Purpose: This is a qualitative descriptive study with the purpose of identifyng the health problems and related factors of socially vulnerable school-age children in Seoul, South Korea. Methods: Two focus group interviews and two individual interviews were conducted with eleven participants. They were two class teachers, three school nurses and two daycare teachers working at elementary schools and three social workers and a welfare worker working at community childcare centers. Data were analyzed using qualitative content analysis. Results: The identified psychosocial problems were 'distracting and excessive behavior', 'depression and helplessness,' 'aggression and violent behaviors', and 'internet overdependence'. The revealed physical health problems were 'poor hygiene', 'obesity', and 'gastrointestinal problems'. In addition, the fact that physical and psychosocial problems are closely inter-linked was reaffirmed through practical examples. Meanwhile, socioeconomic, family environmental, social experiential and individual factors were found to affect children's health. Relationships within a family or a peer group and healthy lifestyle were considered critical issues to deal with in order to improve the childrens' health status. Conclusion: It was proved that socially vulnerable school-age children have various physical and mental health problems due to multiple factors. Therefore, it is required to design nursing approaches that help them achieve optimal health status.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
• /
• v.34 no.6
• /
• pp.1025-1034
• /
• 2004

Purpose: This study defines a vulnerable group in a community that has become the main target of a national health project also, it is descriptive research to suggest an evidence-based direction to meet their deficit health-related needs, Method: This research examined 833 families and 1,835 family members of the financially vulnerable class that was registered in a home visiting program of a public health center. Among them, 892 persons who had health problems, and their family members were examined in detail to find out their characteristics of vulnerability and health needs by assessment during a nurses home visit. Frequency distribution, stepwise-regression and factor analysis were used to analyze the data. Result: The vulnerable group that was defined with social indexes set as standards, involved substantial characteristics of vulnerability. The characteristics of demand showed tendencies of being clustered in 5 factors needs of intensive nursing care, chronic nursing care problems and helplessness, maintenance of family functioning with a disability, deficient problem solving ability, and simple financial fragility. Conclusion: Categorization of needs is an evidence-based estimator of workload in nurse home visiting services, and can be used as a basic resource for direction to meet the deficit needs of a vulnerable group.