Purpose: This study aimed to explore and understand the health promoting behaviors of low-income overweight and obese women in Korea.Methods: Data were collected from 10 low-income overweight and obese women working at a community self-sufficiency center through semi-structured in-depth interviews. Individual interviews were conducted and transcribed. Deductive content analysis was done, using the MAXQDA program (VERBI GmbH).Results: The health promoting behaviors practiced by low-income overweight and obese women were affected by intrapersonal, interpersonal, and organizational/community factors. Six categories were identified and two category clusters were derived that could best describe their health promoting experiences. As main category clusters, despite “feeling that the body and mind are not healthy” participants noted “difficulty maintaining a healthy lifestyle.” Overall, the participants had poor nutritional status, lacked physical activity, experienced much stress in intrapersonal level, and faced intrapersonal-level barriers to health promoting behaviors. Moreover, participants had a lack of personal will, and lack of specific information to practice health promoting behaviors, a lack of time, and too many overall burdens to earn a living for their family while trying to maintain health promotion behaviors.Conclusion: Lifestyle interventions for nutrition management, encouragement of physical activity, and stress management are needed for overweight and obese low-income women. In addition, social support and policies are needed to improve their living environment.

Background It is necessary to comprehensively consider the personal and environmental factors of women who experience overweight or obesity and low‐income households (WOOL) to improve their quality of life (QoL). Aims The aim of this study was to test a hypothetical path model to estimate the effects of self‐efficacy, psychological distress, social support, and health‐promoting behaviors (HPB) on QoL and verify the mediating effects of HPB among WOOL. Methods A total of 151 women with a monthly household income less than 50% of the national median income at eight welfare centers in South Korea participated in this study. Data were collected from January to December 2019 and analyzed using SPSS 25.0 and Amos 23.0. Results The fit indices of the model were adequate (χ2 = 0.197, p = .657; normed χ2 = 0.197, GFI = 0.999, CFI = 1.000, NFI = 0.999, TLI = 1.000, RMSEA = 0.000, and SRMR = 0.005). Self‐efficacy had significant indirect and total effects on QoL (β = 0.064, p = .004, 95% CI [0.015, 0.139]; β = 0.064, p = .004, 95% CI [0.015, 0.139]). HPB completely mediated the path of self‐efficacy to QoL. Social support had significant total, direct, indirect, and total effects on QoL (β = 0.326, p = .001, 95% CI [0.010, 0.025]; β = 0.047, p = .015, 95% CI [0.008, 0.120]; β = 0.373, p = .001, 95% CI [0.015, 0.369]). HPB partially mediated the path of social support to QoL. Psychological distress had significant direct effects on QoL (β = −0.307, p = .001, 95% CI [−0.022, −0.007]). Self‐efficacy, psychological distress, social support, and HPB explained 42.3% of the total variance in QoL. Linking Evidence to Action Integrated nursing interventions that consider self‐efficacy, psychological distress, social stress, and HPB can be useful for improving the QoL of WOOL.

Purpose: Nutritional status and depression are major factors that affect older adults’ quality of life (QoL). This study aimed to examine the mediating effects of depression on the relationship between nutritional status and physical and mental QoL in older adults and to provide a foundation for developing an effective nursing intervention program to improve QoL.Methods: This study was a cross-sectional, correlational study. A convenience sample of 154 older adults was recruited from J Province, South Korea, between December 2019 and August 2020. Data were analyzed using PROCESS macro with a 95% bias-corrected bootstrap confidence interval for the SPSS/WIN 25.0 program.Results: QoL positively correlated with nutritional status and negatively correlated with depression. After controlling for general covariates, depression partially mediated the relationship between nutritional status and QoL in older adults (physical QoL [Effect=0.41, 95% CI=0.08~0.81], mental QoL [Effect=0.38, 95% CI=0.04~0.79]).Conclusion: Health promotion strategies are needed for older adults with poor nutritional status and high levels of depression. Additionally, nutritional status and depression in older adults affect QoL, with depression affecting QoL through nutritional status as a mediator. Therefore, interventions to improve the nutritional status and reduce depression among older adults must be developed and implemented.

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Purpose: This study investigated the trajectory of subjective health status in married postmenopausal women and aimed to identify predictive factors affecting subjective health status. Methods: Data were obtained from women who participated in wave 4 (2012) of the Korean Longitudinal Survey of Women & Families Longitudinal Study and continued to the latest phase (wave 7, 2018). A latent growth model (LGM) was used to analyze data from 1,719 married postmenopausal women in the framework of the ecological system theory. Results: The mean age of the participants at wave 4 was 56.39±4.71 years, and the average subjective health status was around the midpoint (3.19±0.84). LGM analysis confirmed that subjective health status decreased over time (initial B=3.21, slope B=–0.03). The factors affecting initial subjective health were age, body mass index, frequency of vigorous physical activity (microsystem level), marital satisfaction (mesosystem level), and medical service utilization (macrosystem level). Medical service utilization and the frequency of vigorous physical activity were identified as predictive factors affecting the slope in subjective health status. The model fit was satisfactory (TLI=.92, CFI=.95, and RMSEA=.04). Conclusion: This analysis of the trajectory of subjective health status of married postmenopausal women over time confirmed that subjective health is influenced by overall ecological system factors, including the microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, macrosystem, and chronosystem. Therefore, it is necessary to assess physical activity and support policies promoting access to medical services in order to improve the subjective health status of married postmenopausal women.