The purpose of this study was to clarify the concept of health-illness perception's attributes and components, and obtain suggestions in nursing intervention. The Concept analysis was performed following the approach described by Walker & Avant. As a result, there were 5 attributes of health-illness perception, including "perception of control", "positive perception in health", "negative perception in health", "concern of health and illness", and "ability to perform one's duties and responsibilities". There were 8 antecedents of health-illness perception, including "personal factor", "health efficacy", "health-illness factor", "coping", "health belief', "health preoccupation", "physical and mental problem" , and "influence of the surrounding people". There were 6 consequence of health-illness perception, they included "wellness", "psychological adjustment", "unwellness", "unhealth mental status", "powerlessness", and "hopelessness". The results suggest that it is important for nurses to assess the patient comprehensively including "ability to perform one's duties and responsibilities".

View full abstract

The present study aimed to clarify the relationship between consciousness and participation action in disabled sports and contact experience with people with disabilities. The study subjects were 220 monitors who were registered in an Internet research firm. They were evaluated for their consciousness and participation behavior in disabled sports, and contact experience with people with disabilities. We used the χ^2 test in the statistical analysis. The results indicated significant awareness and participation behavior in disabled sport. For the items pertaining to contact experience, we can infer that all items have significant effects on contact experience with persons with disabilities and participation behavior in disabled sports. To promote social exchange and experience through disabled sport and have a contact experience with people with disabilities in the school education system from an early stage, normalization and a symbiotic society should be promoted.

View full abstract

The purpose of this study was to clarify "meaningful occupations in Japan". We searched for case studies that included the words "meaningful occupations" and similar terms, and selected 26 case studies published from 1995 to 2010 for content analysis in this study. We found that essential expressions of "meaningful occupations" could be categorized into 7 groups: the occupations chosen by the clients; the occupations related to their interests; the occupations related to their life stories; the occupations that improved their minds and body functions and actions; the occupations that improved relations with other people; the occupations that fostered their hopes; the occupations that led to self renewal. "Meaningful occupation" affects understanding for clients themselves and their lives, and it is thought that it was occupation to enable rebuilding of their identities. And it is the occupation that occupational therapists help.

View full abstract

Indonesian mothers of children with Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) often need support to enhance their resilience, but no scale is available to assess mothers' resilience in daily activities. Therefore, the aim of this study was to develop a new scale to measure resilience in daily occupation of mothers of children with ASD. Methods: Aspects of resilience in daily activities were generated from literature and developed into 37 questions following a dual-panel methodology. The draft scale was sent to 200 mothers of children with ASD, of which 148 were returned (valid response rate: 74 %). Reliability was investigated using classical test theory. A further 30 draft scales were filled out by another 30 mothers twice, 10-15 days apart. Test-retest reliability was evaluated by Spearman's r. Results: The analysis resulted in the Resilience in Daily Activities Scale (RDAS) consisting of 27 questions, divided into 5 factors. We obtained 0.90 Cronbach'α for the scale, and for the values for each subscale were, achieving life balance 0.88, thinking about child's future 0.86, families' supports 0.82, managing daily activities 0.73, understanding children's condition 0.64. Test-retest reliability was 0.68. Conclusion: RDAS showed appropriate psychometric properties indicating its usability to evaluate resilience in daily activities in Indonesian mothers of children with ASD. In consideration of the sample characteristics, further study is needed, particularly to include mothers from rural regions.

View full abstract

It has been observed that because it is difficult to respond promptly to malfunctions and other failures of diagnostic X-ray equipment at Tokyo Metropolitan Islands Public Health Center locations, routine management is critical. However, commercial measurement systems used for routine management of diagnostic X-ray equipment are expensive. Thus it was difficult to install such a system in each island's Tokyo Metropolitan islands public health center branch office. Understanding X-ray tube voltage, X-ray tube current, and irradiation time is therefore necessary. X-ray output level is determined by these three factors. For these reasons, we developed an X-ray output meter that uses low-cost materials and is also easy to operate. The system can measure the level of X-ray output and irradiation time for routine management. The system can also display X-ray output waveform via a connection to an oscilloscope. Furthermore, we developed a clamp meter that can easily and safely measure X-ray tube current. In this paper, we report the results of installing this simple measurement system in the branch offices of the Tokyo Metropolitan Islands Public Health Center on four islands and conducting routine inspection of X-ray equipment for a year. The results confirmed that the system was useful for the routine management of X-ray equipments. We demonstrated that we were able to understand changes in X-ray output over time as well as errors in X-ray tube current and irradiation time. We also discuss points for improving routine inspection items and their methods of implementation.

View full abstract