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Objectives: To develop a nutrition literacy measure for Taiwanese college students and evaluate its reliability and validity. Methods: A cross-sectional study using convenience sampling was adopted to evaluate the measure and six universities in Taiwan were included. A total of 1,269 students were recruited and 1,264 valid questionnaires were returned. The ratio of men to women was 0.87. Most students were sophomore (38.1%) and junior (26.1%). The nutrition literacy measure was formulated based on the Dietary Guidelines for Taiwanese and the Daily Food Guides and consisted of 8 self-rated items and 32 scenario-based test items. Cronbach’s α coefficient was used to evaluate the internal consistency reliability, while a confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to validate the measure. Results: Cronbach’s α for the self-rated scale and the scenario-based test was 0.85 and 0.81, respectively. The measure showed a good model fit in 2 parts and the difficulty parameters of the scenario-based test ranged from -3.22 to 0.11 in the item response theory analysis (acceptable range= -4 to 2). Furthermore, scores for 2 parts of the measure were both positively correlated with the healthy-eating behavior scale (r = .417, p < .001 and r = .125, p < .001, respectively). Conclusions: The devised instrument was a valid and reliable measure for assessing nutrition literacy among Taiwanese college students. Specifically, it could be used by practitioners for needs assessment before the implementation of a nutrition education program. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: The purposes of this study were to understand the work stress, emotional intelligence, and emotional exhaustion status of Taiwanese dietitians, and to determine the predictors of emotional exhaustion. Methods: A total of 320 practising dietitians voluntarily participated in the online questionnaire survey. The self-administered, structured survey consisted of the Occupational Stress Indicator-2, the Emotional Intelligence Scale, the Maslach Burnout Inventory - Chinese, and questions seeking general information. Descriptive statistics, one-way ANOVA, and hierarchical regression were performed for the analyses. Results: This study found that workload was the main source of work stress among dietitians and they were at moderate levels of burnout. The 5 subscales of emotional intelligence were all higher than the middle point of the measurement scale. Those who worked in hospitals had significantly higher levels of work stress and emotional exhaustion. The final model explained 46.2% of the variance in emotional exhaustion. Work place, work stress, and emotional intelligence were significant predictors of emotional exhaustion. Conclusions: Emotional exhaustion is a noteworthy issue among Taiwanese dietitians, especially for those working in hospitals. The study’s findings suggest a significant association between emotional intelligence and emotional exhaustion; thus, enhancement of emotional intelligence may need to be at the core of future interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Myopia, the most common refractive error, is the most common cause of avoidable visual impairment among children and has reached epidemic proportions among children and young adults in urban areas of East and Southeast Asia that contain populations of Chinese ancestry. Moreover, vision health is an important theme of the health-promoting school program issued by the Ministry of Education in Taiwan. The aim of this study is to assess the impact of pre- and post-intervention proposed by the health-promoting school (HPS) model. The objectives are to understand whether the HPS model influenced the vision screening results and the attitude, knowledge level, and vision care behavior of the students involved. A prospective cohort study design was used to evaluate a vision health program. Four elementary schools, local education authorities, and one university in northern Taiwan established a coalition partnership to design a six-month program to combat myopia among students. The target population was 6668 school children from local elementary schools. For the purpose of this study, the outcome of visual acuity testing (in logMAR) was analyzed with a sampling of 373 school children (aged 11-12 years old) who were chosen from high prevalence of poor vision classes. After the HPS program, the attitudes, behaviors, and knowledge levels of the school children regarding vision health were significantly improved. The pre-intervention mean logMAR of all participating students ( N = 373) was -.10, which increased to -.19 after the intervention. Analysis using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test showed that the logMAR value was significantly improved after the intervention ( t = 2.13, p < 0.05). Our findings highlight the relevance and effectiveness of the coalition's efforts, which reinforces the usefulness of co-operatively implementing the HPS program. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unhealthy food advertising is an important contributor to childhood obesity. The purpose of this pilot study was to evaluate the impact of a food advertising literacy program that incorporated components of health-promoting media literacy education on fifth-grade children. Participants were 140 fifth-graders (10 and 11 years old) from one school who were randomly divided into three groups. Experimental Group A received a food advertising literacy program, experimental Group B received a comparable knowledge-based nutrition education program and the control group did not receive any nutrition education. Repeated measures analysis of variance and multivariate analysis of covariance were used to test mean changes between pretest, posttest and follow-up on participants' nutritional knowledge, food advertising literacy and food purchasing behavior. Results showed that, as compared with Group B and the control groups, Group A showed higher nutritional knowledge, food advertising literacy and food purchasing behavior at post-intervention, but had no significant improvements in nutritional knowledge and food purchasing behavior at the 1-month follow-up. Although some improvements were observed, future studies should consider a long-term, settings-based approach that is closely connected with children's daily lives, as this might be helpful to solidify children's skills in recognizing, evaluating and understanding unhealthy food advertising. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to determine the working status and turnover intentions of dietitians in Taiwan, and to analyze the relationship between working status and turnover intentions. Methods: An online questionnaire survey was developed to collect data. Four hundred twenty-four practicing dietitians voluntarily participated in this nationwide study. The instruments which were used included OSI-2, MBI-Chinese, and an individual information questionnaire. Descriptive statistics and multiple hierarchical regression analysis were used. Results: (1) The mean total scores of work stress and job satisfaction were 166.3 (SD=31.37) and 43.1 (SD=11.44), respectively. The burnout status of dietitians included a high level of emotional exhaustion (mean=29.21, SD=10.75), a moderate level of depersonalization (mean=9.09, SD=6.83), and a moderate level of personal accomplishment (mean=34.06, SD=7.80); thus, dietitians are at high risk for burnout. Only 18.9% of dietitians never consider leaving their current jobs. (2) Work stress, job satisfaction, and emotional exhaustion were predictors of turnover intention, accounting for 44.4% of total variation (p<.001), while demographic variables, job location, and work setting were not significant predictors of turnover intention. Conclusions: Compared with the results of other studies involving different professionals and dietitians in other countries, the working status of Taiwanese dietitians is poor. In view of the significant impact on turnover intention, there is value in considering how to improve job satisfaction amongst dietitians when planning the responsibilities and staffing of dietitians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: The aims of this study were to develop Taiwan's Child Health Literacy Test and to undertake a nation-wide survey in order to determine the current status of Taiwanese sixth graders' health literacy, and to understand the association between health literacy, healthy behavior, and health status. Methods: Taiwan's Child Health Literacy Test was developed through the process of concept clarification, a qualitative pilot, a development pilot, and a field test. In the field test, 162,609 sixth graders (56.9%) from 2,235 schools (83.3%) nationwide completed the questionnaire. We also collected the students' dates of birth, BMIs, self-reported health and healthy behaviors. Results: The final test consisted of 32 questions with item discrimination of 0.55~1.89 and item difficulty of -1.7~0.41 according to IRT; Cronbach's α was 0.87. Based on this information, the test was deemed appropriate for basic health literacy screening among children. Nation-wide, the average score for sixth graders' health literacy was 23.97 points (total score 32 points), with a correct rate of 74.9%. Those who were "good" in self-reported health scored highest in health literacy (M = 24.29). Health literacy was significantly positively related to healthy behavior (r = .25, p< .05), and negatively to risky behavior (r = -.28, p< .05). Conclusions: This study was the first curriculum-based child health literacy test developed from the viewpoints of both teachers and pupils in Taiwan through a rigorous procedure. The nationwide survey results may serve as a reference for decision-makers at the national health education level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Interleukin 12B (IL12B) gene polymorphisms have been linked to several inflammatory diseases, but their role in the development of Graves ophthalmopathy (GO) in Graves disease (GD) patients is unclear. The purpose of this study was to investigate the disease association of IL12B single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). Methods: A Taiwan Chinese population comprising 200 GD patients with GO and 271 GD patients without GO was genotyped using an allele-specific extension and ligation method. Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium was estimated using the chi-square test. Allele and genotype frequencies were compared between GD patients with and without GO using the chi-square test.Results: The genotype and allele frequencies of examined SNPs did not differ between GD patients with and without GO. Although the genotype distribution remained nonsignificant in the sex-stratified analyses, the frequency of the T allele at SNP rs1003199 was significantly higher in patients with GO in the male cohort (P = 6.00 × 10-3). In addition, haplotypes of IL12Bmay be used to predict the risk of GO (P = 1.70 × 10-2); however, we could not prove the statistical significance of analysis after applying the Bonferroni correction. Conclusions: Our results provide new information that the examined IL12B gene polymorphisms may be associated with susceptibility to GO in the Taiwan Chinese population in a sex-specific manner. This conclusion requires further investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the title compound, {[CuCl2(tpomb)]·CH3OH} n [where tpomb = 1,3,5-tris(2-pyridyl­oxy­methyl)­benzene, C24H21N3O3], two pyridyl­oxy­methyl pendant arms of the tpomb ligand bridge CuII centres via Cu—N bonds to form one-dimensional coordination polymer chains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The title compound, [Pd(NO3)2(C2H8N2)], forms an infinite two-dimensional sheet-like motif, propagated by inter­molecular hydrogen bonds between the amino groups of the ethane-1,2-diamine ligands and the nitrate O atoms. There are two complex mol­ecules in the asymmetric unit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]