PURPOSE
Many studies have shown that regular exercise produces positive effects on health. The purpose of this study was to examine the differences of health-related quality of life by stage of exercise and the interaction effect of age, sex and stage of exercise. METHOD: A total of 1266 participants were interviewed with structured questionnaire. Stage of exercise was assessed with a single item and respondents were classified with respect to exercise intention and behavior. Health-related quality of life was measured with SF-36 Health Survey Questionnaire. RESULT: Health-related QOL were found to be different by stage of exercise. The subjects who were reached maintenance stage showed significantly higher scores on physical functioning, bodily pain, general health perception, mental health, role limitation due to emotional problems, social functioning, and vitality than those in preparation, contemplation, and precontemplation stage. In addition a significant interaction effect between stage of exercise and age was found on physical functioning, bodily pain, general health perception, mental health, and vitality. CONCLUSION: Perceived health-related QOL varies with stage of exercise. This finding suggests that health is related to both intention and behavior of exercise. Therefore it is important to consider cognitive-motivational and behavioral stage of change for developing exercise programs.

PURPOSE
Perceived barriers to exercise were investigated for adults.
METHOD
A total 1266 subjects were selected by a quota sampling method with age, gender, and residence. Perceived barriers were categorized under 4 groups: knowledge, psychological, physical, and external factors. All 23 items of perceived barriers were responded on a dichotomous (yes/no) scale.
RESULT
Mean number of perceived barriers was 4.61 and 87.9% subjects perceived at least one barrier which prevented involvement in exercise. External barriers ranked highest, followed in order by psychological, knowledge, and physical barriers. Most factors of perceived barriers were found to be different by age, gender, and residence, in that, the younger, female, living in Daejeon subjects were found to respond with more barriers than the older, male, living in Chungju or Seoul.
CONCLUSION
Perceived barriers to exercise are differenct by age, gender, and residence. Therefore, it is recommended that age, gender, and residence of subjects must be considered in order to develop exercise programs and public campaigns.

Social readjustment is very important in rehabilitation of stroke survivors. The purpose of this study was to examine the level of social readjustment and related factors in stroke survivors. Especially, to find the most useful predictor for social readjustment is a major point of this research. The study included 254 outpatients who were given follow-up care after discharge from. Occupational rehabilitation and resumption of the perceived meaningful social activity prios to the stroke were used to measure social readjustment. The resumptions of first meaningful social activity was the best predictor for life satisfaction in stroke survivors(r=.245, p<.01). The substance of perceived meaningful social activities were job, meeting with friends, hobby and activities for the family. The sum of meaningful social activities (r=.175, p<.01) and occupational rehabilitation (r=.116, p<.05) were significantly related to life satisfaction. There were significant difference in IADL, depression and life satisfaction according to resumption of meaningful social activity. But, occupational rehabilitation was not related to depression. The level of social readjustment was different between occupational rehabilitation and resumption of meaningful social activity. It was 45.7% in the first meaningful social activity and 36.6% in occupational rehabilitation. The related factors with resumption of the first meaningful social activity were that of IADL, depression, illness intrusiveness and cognitive function. And the level of IADL, illness intrusiveness, cognitive function, and age were significantly related to occupational rehabilitation. In conclusion, we suggest that the resumption of the first meaningful activity in stroke survivors is the best predictor of social rehabilitation. Thus, nurses need to work for resumption of meaningful activity as well as occupational rehabilitation.

Predicting factors of post-stroke depression were investigated. The subjects were 254 stroke patients who had been discharged and visited regularly the outpatient clinic for follow up care. The influencing factors were classified into five categories: demographic, disease-related, current state, social support, and illness intrusiveness. Sex, age, job, and educational level were defined as the demographic factor. The disease-related factors included stroke type, illness duration, attack frequency, and NIH score. ADL, cognitive function, and social activity were considered as the current state factors. The social support was measured as the perceived amount of social support. Illness intrusiveness means the perceived illness induced life style disruptions. Demographic, disease-related, current state, and social support were hypothesized to directly and indirectly affect post-stroke depression through illness intrusiveness. The illness intrusiveness was hypothesized to directly affect post-stroke depression. The hierarchial multiple regression was used to identify significant factors. The result showed that this model explained 43.3% of variance of post-stroke depression. And the prevalence of post-stroke depression was 38.8%. Among the demographic factors, job was identified as a main contributor to indirectly increase the post-stroke depression. Among the disease-related factors, stroke type, attack frequency, and NIH score were found to indirectly affect the post-stroke depression. Among the current state factors, ADL and social activity indirectly affected the post-stroke depression through illness intrusiveness. Social support and illness intrusiveness were identified to directly affect the post-stroke depression. This study has proved the factors likely to be implicated in the development of post-stroke depression. Based upon these results, it is recommended that the nurses who take care of post-stroke patients consider the risk factors such as social support, illness intrusiveness et al. Also programs which decrease the illness intrusiveness and increase the social support to reduce post-stoke depression recommended to be developed.