PURPOSE
This study explored cardiovascular health (CVH), depressive symptoms, and well-being among community-based Korean women according to hwa-byung (HB) symptoms.
METHODS
This cross-sectional study measured HB symptoms, depressive symptoms, quality of life (QoL), and spiritual well-being (SWB) in addition to biophysical indicators of CVH.
RESULTS
Fourteen women of the HB group are more likely to live alone with lower income than 36 women in the comparison group. Compared to the comparison group, the HB group has larger mean waist circumference and higher prevalence of abdominal obesity along with more knee arthritis and back pain. Although women in the HB group appeared worse in other CVH than their counterparts, this was not statistically significant. It is noteworthy, that the HB group showed a higher probability of having a hard cardiovascular event (CVE) within 10 years than the comparison group. Women in the HB group reported more depressive symptoms, poor QoL, and low SWB as well as smoking and sleep difficulties.
CONCLUSION
Despite the small sample size, significant relationships of HB symptoms to abdominal obesity, the probability of a hard CVE within 10 years, and psychosocial health were found. Strategies for effective community-based cardiovascular programs for Korean women may include HB screening and/or management.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of a hand massage program on anxiety, vital sign and pain in clients with ischemic heart disease. The design utilized for this study was quasi-experimental with a nonequivalent control group non-synchronized design The subjects were fifty-four patients, twenty-eight for the experimental and twenty-six for the control group, who were admitted with ischemic heart diease at a cardiac intensive care unit in K medical center of K university. This study was carried out from May, 1999 to March, 2000. The level of anxiety and pain measured by Visual Analogue Scale, systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure and pulse rate were measured before and after hand massage, the state of Anxiety was measured by the Spielberger (1970) scale at admission and after hand massage for three days. The collected data were processed by using the SPSS PC program and analyzed using X2 -test and t-test. The result of this study are as follows: 1. The scores of VAS anxiety and State of anxiety of the experimental group were lower than those of the control group. 2. The degree of systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure and pulse rate of the experimental group were lower than that of the control group. 3. The score of VAS pain of the experimental group was lower than that of the control group. The results suggested that hand massage can decrease VAS anxiety, State of anxiety, vital signs and VAS pain of patients who were admitted with ischemic heart disease at cardiac intensive care unit Therefore, it is proposed that hand massage is an appropriate nursing intervention to relieve anxiety of the patients who were admitted with ischemic heart disease at a cardiac intensive care unit.