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Results of this study could be used for making health policy and/or to set the goals for intervention. In addition, nurses who care for the older adults may use the health indicators to plan and control the given quality of care. The researchers may further examine the effects of study programmes for health promotion.

Aim Good sleep quality is essential to physical and mental‐health‐related quality of life. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of a walking exercise in relieving sleep quality, fatigue, and depression in new mothers during the postpartum period. Methods This quasi‐experimental study was conducted at a teaching hospital in southern Taiwan. One hundred and four eligible postpartum women with poor sleep quality (Postpartum Sleep Quality Scale; PSQS score ≧16) were assigned to either the experimental group (n = 50) or the control group (n = 54) according to their individual preferences. The participants in the experimental group participated in a 12‐week stride walking exercise intervention. The control group did not receive any exercise intervention. The PSQS, Postpartum Fatigue Scale, and Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale were used to assess outcomes. Results Repeated measures ANOVA demonstrated that the experimental group participants perceived milder physical symptoms associated with sleep inefficiency at 4‐week posttest (F = 7.25, p < 0.01) than their control group peers. However, no significant differences were found between two groups in terms of either fatigue or depression at 4‐week and 12‐week posttest. Conclusion Significant improvement in the physical symptoms associated with sleep inefficiency was observed. The findings may be used to encourage postpartum women with disordered sleep to incorporate 20–30 min of stride walking into their regular routine to improve sleep quality.

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Background Women report a higher incidence of sleep problems than men. Few studies addressing the effect of gender on the efficacy of administering auricular acupressure (AA) at shenmen points (heart meridian 7 [HT7]) on sleep quality have been published. Purpose The primary aim of this study was to investigate the effects of a 4-week AA intervention applied at the HT7 points on sleep quality, perceived physical health, and perceived mental health in community-dwelling individuals with poor self-reported sleep quality. Additional analyses were used to evaluate the gender-specific effects of this intervention. Methods A cluster randomized controlled trial with repeated-measures design was used. One hundred seventy-nine eligible participants were randomly assigned to either the AA group ( n = 88; 47 women, 41 men) or the sleep hygiene instruction (SHI) group ( n = 91; 52 women, 39 men). The AA group self-administered acupressure at HT7 on both ears for a 4-week period, whereas the SHI group received an SHI information sheet. Outcome measures included the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) and the Short-Form Health Survey-12 Version 2, with data collected at baseline and at 2, 4, and 8 weeks posttest. Results Linear mixed-model analysis revealed that the participants in the AA group experienced significantly greater reductions in mean PSQI global score and the three indices of sleep latency, subjective sleep quality, and daytime dysfunction than the SHI group at 2 and 4 weeks posttest. The improvements in subjective sleep quality and daytime dysfunction remained at 4 weeks posttest in the AA group, but not in the SHI group. The PSQI global score decreased significantly more in men than women in the AA group between baseline and 4 weeks posttest. Conclusions/Implications for Practice: Four weeks of self-administered acupressure at HT7 on both ears is an effective intervention for community-dwelling poor sleepers who are over 45 years old. Moreover, the improvements in subjective sleep quality and daytime dysfunction persist for up to 4 weeks after the end of the intervention. This self-administered acupressure intervention is more effective in men than in women in terms of improving sleep quality. Gender bias is known to influence research results and may lead to inappropriate generalizations. Thus, future studies that are performed to build basic scientific evidence should include considerations of the effects of gender in the study design.