This study examined the effectiveness of health promotion counseling for overweight adolescent nursing students. The Chinese version of an established health promotion counseling booklet developed by the author of this study was used in the counseling. The study employed a one-group pre- and post-quasi-experimental research design from September 1997 to June 1999. A total of 166 (17%) first-year, junior college nursing students were found to be overweight according to the results of a health examination at the school health center at a junior college in the Taipei Metropolitan Area. Of these 166 students, 58 were randomly selected and 49 of these had complete participation records for the 2-year study. All subjects received 8 hours of whole group and 12 hours of small group health promotion counseling over a 1-year period. The results show that health promotion counseling enabled subjects to adopt healthier lifestyles and most of the physiological variables (WLI, HDL, SBP, TC) were significantly improved. This research outcome supports the value of health promotion counseling in school health centers, which incorporates material to help overweight adolescent students live a healthier life.

IntroductionTo evaluate the risk of breast cancer associated with long-term use of antihypertensive agents (AHs) in Taiwanese women with hypertension.MethodsA search of the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database identified 330,699 patients with hypertension who were treated with antihypertensive drugs between January 1, 1998 and December 31, 2011. Logistic regression models were used to estimate the odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) between the use of AHs and breast cancer risk, adjusted for other types of antihypertensive drugs, statins and co-morbidities.ResultsAmong the AHs used to treat the hypertensive women enrolled in our study, our analysis revealed that those treated with one specific particular class of beta-blockers (beta-1 selective beta-blockers) had an increased risk for breast cancer. We also found that the ever-use of calcium channel blockers (CCBs; i.e. for 13 years) was associated with breast cancer in an adjusted model (OR 1.09; 95% CI 1.03–1.16). However, the use of nonselective beta-blockers, selective and nonselective alpha-blockers, angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors and angiotensin II antagonists were not associated with breast cancer risk.ConclusionBased on the results of our analysis, long-term use of CCBs or beta-1 selective beta-blockers are likely to be associated with the risk of breast cancer. Further large comprehensive population-based studies to support our findings are required for confirmation of this conclusion.

Generally, routing techniques are essential for Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) to deliver data packets to their destinations (also known as sinks). For a practical application, sensors are deployed to monitor environmental changes and events. Most WSNs detect specific events in their specific environments. But, different WSNs may monitor different events with different sensors in the same area. For example, a smart-home WSN deploys thermal sensors/meters to measure indoor and outdoor temperatures, bodytemperature sensors to detect thief intrusion, etc. Also, in the underlying house, there is a health WSN which utilizes physiological sensors to monitor patients' health condition. In other words, several WSNs of different purposes co-exist in the same geographical area. Currently, each WSN's data delivery is independent from others'. Basically, if all sensors in such a multi-WSNs environment can share their routing paths/nodes and relay event packets for other WSNs, the delivery efficiency can be enhanced since many more sensors can be found there for packet relay. Consequently, the transmission energy can be reduced since energy consumed for wireless transmission is proportional to d 2 where d is the transmission distance between sender and receiver. Therefore, in this study, we propose an energy saving routing mechanism, named Energy-Efficient Cooperative Routing Scheme for Heterogeneous Wireless Sensor Networks (EERH for short), in which several WSNs deployed in the same geographical environment form a heterogeneous sensor network and sensors relay packets for its own WSN and also for other WSNs. Routing paths are dynamically established according to the transmission directions of event packets and the residual energy of the underlying sensors and their neighbors. In addition, the packets routed to the same direction by the same sensors are aggregated to save delivering energy. Moreover, the network parameters of the EERH, like propagation delay of an event packet and the transmission distance of a sensor, are adjustable so as to satisfy the practical environment needs. Simulation results show that the EERH efficiently extends the lifetime of a heterogeneous WSN. INDEX TERMS Wireless sensor networks, heterogeneous wireless sensor networks, energy efficient, cooperative routing.

The purposes of this study were to (a) develop a teaching course on health promotion for nursing students in Taiwan, (b) evaluate the effects of this teaching course, and (c) understand students' appraisals of its effectiveness in helping them to change unhealthy behavior. A sample of 65 randomly selected female nursing students took an 18-week course developed by the investigators, which included 30 h of classroom lectures and 4 weeks of written reports by students chronicling the changes in their behavior. Health promotion questionnaires administered before and after the course and content analysis of the students' reports were used to evaluate the effects of the course. Students' questionnaire scores after course completion indicated significantly increased intent to adopt healthy lifestyles. Content analysis of students' reports on their personal behavior-changing experiences showed that they accepted the potential value of curriculum aspects such as experiencing the struggle, suffering, and even abandonment of the process, experiencing the benefits of change, increasing self-confidence, and empathizing with how difficult it is for clients to change behavior. These results support the value of teaching courses on health promotion to nursing students. The authors recommend including such a course as part of a regular nursing education.