Sexual harassment not only endangers nursing students’ physical and mental health but also considerably affects their future willingness to engage in the field of nursing. To identify experiences, knowledge, coping behaviors, and determinants of sexual harassment among nursing students during clinical practicum, this study conducted a cross-sectional survey where a structured self-report questionnaire was used. A total of 291 senior nursing students were recruited from four universities in Central Taiwan. Sixty-six nursing students (22.7%), including 59 women (23.3%) and 7 men (18.4%), reported experiencing sexual harassment during clinical practicum. Male students scored significantly higher than female students did on knowledge of sexual harassment (p = 0.028). Female students scored significantly higher than male students did on attitudes toward preventing and coping with sexual harassment (p = 0.05). Nursing students who were older, had fathers who had higher education levels, or had undergone gender-related courses were more likely to experience sexual harassment. More than one-fifth of nursing students experienced sexual harassment during their clinical practicum, making this a formidable challenge in nursing education. Education is required to prevent sexual harassment and enhance gender sensitivity among nursing students, who are at a greater risk of experiencing sexual harassment in clinical practicum.

In this modern digital era, older adults encounter considerable challenges in technology adoption, primarily due to varying degrees of technology anxiety and its implications on their behavioral intentions. We conducted a cross-sectional survey with 250 participants aged 60 and older in Taiwan to investigate the mediating role of technology anxiety in the dynamic between loneliness and technology usage intentions. The results reveal that participants exhibited mild levels of loneliness (mean score: 1.53), moderate technology anxiety (mean score: 19.29), and moderate to high intentions toward technology use (mean score: 10.96). The study identifies a significant total effect of loneliness on technology behavioral intention (c = -0.508, p < 0.001). Specifically, loneliness was found to significantly influence technology anxiety (a = 1.158, p < 0.001), which in turn significantly impacted behavioral intention, even after adjusting for loneliness (b = -0.161, p < 0.001). Technology anxiety partially mediated the relationship between loneliness and behavioral intention, exacerbating its negative impact (c’ = -0.322, p < 0.001). These findings highlight the critical need for targeted interventions and policy measures to address and mitigate the barriers to technology adoption faced by older adults.

Our objectives are to examine whether patients with fibromyalgia (FM) present an increased risk of hearing loss (HL) compared with those without FM and to explore the relationship between comorbidities/drugs and development of HL in patients with FM. Furthermore, we investigated the incidence rate of different types of HL and the joint effects for HL with FM and comorbidities. This population-based retrospective cohort study included patients with new-onset FM from 2000 to 2002 (the FM group) and age- and sex-matched randomized patients without FM (the non-FM group) from Taiwan’s National Health Insurance Research Database. Patients were followed up from baseline (3 months after FM diagnosis) until death, withdrawal, HL development, or December 31, 2013. The primary outcome was the risk of HL, which was assessed using Cox proportional-hazards analysis. The overall HL risk in the FM group was 1.46-fold (95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.38–1.55) higher than that in the non-FM group after adjustment for sex, age, and comorbidities (p < 0.0001). Patients with FM had significantly greater sensorineural HL (adjusted hazard ratio = 1.46, 95% CI: 1.37–1.56) than those without FM. Patients with FM having comorbidities of diabetes, hyperlipidemia, depression, and Meniere’s disease had a higher risk of HL than those without FM. Our findings support the notion that FM influences HL and is in line with the hypothesis that the FM mechanism is related to a central nervous system abnormality in sensory processing. Health care professionals should provide appropriate screening for the risk of HL and prevention and counseling methods for patients with FM.

Purpose: This retrospective cohort study was conducted to determine the glaucoma risk associated with metabolic disease (MetD) using insurance claims data of Taiwan. Methods: From the database, we identified patients with newly diagnosed hypertension, diabetes and/or hyperlipidemia from the years 2000 to 2002 as the MetD cohort (N = 42,036) and an age-gender-diagnosis-date matched control cohort without MetD with a two-fold sample size than that of the MetD cohort. Both cohorts were followed until the development of glaucoma, death, or withdrawal, until 31 December 2013. The incidence of glaucoma, and the Cox method estimated hazard ratio (HR) of glaucoma were calculated. Results showed that the incidence of glaucoma was two-fold higher in the MetD cohort than in the controls (1.99 versus 0.99 per 1000 person-years), with an adjusted HR of 1.66 (95% CI: 1.50–1.85). The glaucoma incidence was higher in patients with diabetes than those with hypertension and hyperlipidemia (2.38 versus 1.95 and 1.72 per 1000 person-years, respectively). The incidence increased to 5.67 per 1000 person-years in patients with all three comorbidities, with an aHR of 4.95 (95% CI: 2.35–10.40). We also found higher incidence rates of primary open-angle glaucoma and primary angle-closure glaucoma with aHRs of 2.03 and 1.44, respectively. It was concluded that glaucoma risk increased with the number of MetD. Health providers need to monitor patients with MetD to prevent glaucoma.