Factors associated with glycemic control in insulin-treated patients with type 2 diabetes

Adherence rate of frequency of insulin injection, empowerment perceptions, and diabetes distress were important explanatory factors of HbA1c levels in insulin-treated patients. Nurses providing care to patients with type 2 diabetes and received insulin injection may be interested in this article

Overweight Risk and Parental Concerns of Risk for Chinese Preschoolers in the U.S., China and Taiwan

Background and Purpose: The World Health Organization (WHO) has designated childhood obesity as a global epidemic. Parental factors such as perceptions of their child’s weight status, concerns about their child’s weight, parental feeding practices, and parents’ own weight status may be associated with increased obesity risk among preschool children. This study aims to explore factors related to body mass index (BMI) and parental concerns about their children’s weight among Chinese pre-school aged children in the U.S., China and Taiwan. Methods: A cross-sectional study design was utilized. One hundred children (ages 3-5) and their parents participated in the study. Parents completed a family eating and activity habit questionnaire, a child feeding practices survey, a child bdy shape pictorial list, and a demographic survey. Children had their weight and height measured. Results: Fathers’ elevated BMI was related to higher children’s BMI (R2 = .095, p = 005), especially among boys. Parent-reported food restriction practices, perception of their child being heavy, increased food monitoring, and higher children’s activity level were associated with increased concerns for a child’s weight (R2 = .43, p = 001). Conclusion: In contrast to literature that focuses on mothers, our study suggests that obesity prevention for Chinese fathers may assist in the obesity prevention efforts of their young children, especially among boys. In addition, parent education on healthy feeding practices for preschool children is warranted for preventing childhood obesity

Development of a suicidal recovery instrument to assess suicidal individuals\u27 recovery condition

Session presented on Saturday, July 25, 2015: Purpose: The aim of this study was to establish the reliability and validity of a suicidal recovery instrument to assess suicidal individuals\u27 recovery condition. Methods: Four professionals in this area, and 10 patients who recovered from suicide attempts screened the suicidal recovery instrument to establish content validity. A pilot study was conducted comprising patients who recovered from suicide attempts (n=84) to test the instrument for reliability. Internal consistency reliability and test-retest reliability (two tests over a one-month interval) were used to determine the reliability of the instrument. Results: The average age of the participants was 40.08 +/- 10.68. The average period from suicide attempt was 19.9 +/- 9.1 months. Most of the participants were females (n=62, 73.8%), lived with family/friend/relatives (n=74, 88.1%), and families were their support system (n=65, 77.4%). More than half of the participants belonged to the Buddhist or Taoist faith (n=52, 62.6%). Half of the participants had suffered an important loss within one year (n=42, 50%) and failing health was the principal reason (n=19, 22.6%). Half of the participants had only attempted suicide once (n=42, 50%). The top means of attempted suicide was overdosing on medication (n=60, 71.4%). The most common reason for attempting suicide was depression (n=42, 50%). Almost half of the participants held a high school degree (n=35, 41.7%) with either no job (n=36, 42.9%) or full time job (n=38, 45.3%). One third of the participants were married (n=31, 36.9%) or divorced (including separated and bereaved of spouse) (n=28, 33.4%) with no children (n=29, 34.5%). The final version of the SRS contained four subcategories with 22 items: identifying the meaning of existence, adaptive ability, optimistic facing life, and attitude towards life. The result of content validity index (CVI) was 0.94 for the instrument. Cronbach\u27s alpha demonstrated a reliability of 0.91 for the instrument. The test-retest reliability for the instrument was 0.60. Conclusion: The suicidal recovery instrument tested satisfactorily for content validity and reliability. In future research, the researcher can use Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to examine the construct validity

Reliability and validity of the Chinese version of the Suicide Caring Competence Scale (SCCS) for family caregivers: Scale development

Session presented on Saturday, July 26, 2014: Purpose: To develop a Chinese version of the Suicide Caring Competence Scale (SCCS) for family Caregivers and to examine its reliability and validity. Methods: The study was a cross-sectional questionnaire survey. Participants came from a Suicide Prevention Center and two acute psychiatric hospitals in Taiwan. A convenience sample of 165 caregivers of people who attempted suicide. To be eligible to participate participants had to be a primary caregiver of people who had attempted suicide and be over 18 years of age. The questionnaire consisted of the Chinese version of the 20-item SCCS, developed by the authors and was based on a previous qualitative study. Item analysis was used to delete redundant items. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were used to examine the construct validity. The association between educational level and SCCS was used to examine the concurrent validity of SCCS. Cronbach\u27s alpha and test-retest reliability were examined to understand the reliability of SCCS. The study was conducted in 2008 and 2009. Results: EFA and CFA indicated that a second-order factorial model with five subscales and 19 items best fit the data. The five subscales were proactive prevention, daily living care, seeking assistance from professional resources, seeking assistance from laypersons, and seeking assistance from religious resources. The higher the educational level, the higher the SCCS was. Cronbach\u27s alpha and test-retest reliability of total and subscales ranged from 0.67 to 0.90 and from 0.62 to 0.82, respectively. The SCCS had acceptable validity and reliability. Conclusion: The Chinese version of SCCS has satisfactory reliability and validity. Nurses could use the SCCS to assess the family caregivers\u27 competence and provide proper education to improve their caring competence for their suicidal relatives

Self-Care and Well-Being Model for Elderly Women: A Comparison of Rural and Urban Areas

The purposes of this study were to examine the relationships among age, social class, perceived health, self-care, and well-being in urban and rural elderly women and to validate and compare two models using these two groups. A causal model of self-care and well-being was proposed for this study based on Orem's self-care model and empirical data. Data were collected using a survey-interview method. Of the 351 elderly women recruited, 159 were in the urban group and 192 in the rural group. Two models of self-care and well-being were tested using path analysis with the LISREL 8 program. The resultant models yielded a Chi-squared of 1.98 with two degrees of freedom (p = 0.37) in the urban group and a Chi-squared of 4.20 with three degrees of freedom (p = 0.24) in the rural group, indicating good fit between the data and the two models. These two models provide guidelines for community nurses to design appropriate self-care programs for elderly women

Correlates for Consistency of Contraceptive Use Among Sexually Active Female Adolescents

This study explored the correlates for consistency of contraceptive use among sexually active female adolescents in Kaohsiung County, Taiwan. Overall, 164 female adolescents who had engaged in sexual behavior within the last 6 months and were not pregnant at the time of the study were selected from two vocational high schools in Kaohsiung County, Taiwan. An anonymous questionnaire was used to measure demographic data, contraceptive attitudes, contraceptive knowledge, contraceptive self-efficacy, perception of peers' use of contraceptives, sexual history, and contraceptive use. The results showed that 45.7% of subjects had sex once or more per week, and that 39.6% of subjects always used contraceptives while 15.2% never used contraceptives. Condoms were the most popular contraceptives (51.2%) and the withdrawal method was the second most popular (23.8%). Stepwise logistic regression showed that higher contraceptive attitudes (odds ratio, OR, 1.148) and previous contraceptive education in school (OR, 3.394) increased the probability of consistently using contraceptives, correctly classifying 67.2% of the sample

Unity of knowing and action- exploring moral courage in nursing practice

Ethics is a core value of nursing, and hospital nurses will try, as much as possible, to be "good" in terms of established nursing ethics and values. Nurses learn the value of providing "patient centered care" in school and try to establish relationships of trust with their patients in clinical settings. However, the realities of working in the hospital teaches nurses that actual situations are complex to the point of inducing "ethical dilemmas" and "moral distress" because of the many factors that affect medical decisions regarding individual patients. If nurses could follow their conscience in managing difficult ethical situations with moral courage, they would promote the value of "good nurse" which is innate in both nurses and society. This article defines the parameters of conscience and moral courage, the conditions such should exhibit, strategies nurses should consider, and appropriate nursing training methods. The authors hope to help foster the development of moral courage and create positive practice environments for nursing staff

Self-Care and Well-Being Model for Elderly Women: A Comparison of Rural and Urban Areas

The purposes of this study were to examine the relationships among age, social class, perceived health, self-care, and well-being in urban and rural elderly women and to validate and compare two models using these two groups. A causal model of self-care and well-being was proposed for this study based on Orem's self-care model and empirical data. Data were collected using a survey-interview method. Of the 351 elderly women recruited, 159 were in the urban group and 192 in the rural group. Two models of self-care and well-being were tested using path analysis with the LISREL 8 program. The resultant models yielded a Chi-squared of 1.98 with two degrees of freedom (p = 0.37) in the urban group and a Chi-squared of 4.20 with three degrees of freedom (p = 0.24) in the rural group, indicating good fit between the data and the two models. These two models provide guidelines for community nurses to design appropriate self-care programs for elderly women