Background: Prolonged hours of standing are a central part of a nurse's job and can potentially affect their foot health. Nurses often address these problems by choosing functional stockings (FS) and/or compression stockings (CS). However, it remains to be established whether nurses' perceptions regarding their foot health are related to the choice of hosiery products, furthermore, the decision between FS or CS may impact the arterial health of nurses. The aim of this study was to investigate nurses' awareness of foot health and determine whether FS or CS genuinely benefited the arterial health of the nurses' feet. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among nurses worked regular nursing shifts in a tertiary medical center in Taipei, Taiwan after obtaining ethical approval from the Institutional Review Committee. Convenience sampling method was used. Point estimate was calculated at a 95% confidence interval. Results: Nurses wearing FS exhibited lower brachial mean arterial pressure (MAP) (92.3±11.1 mmHg; P=0.03), end-systolic blood pressure (SBP) (103.4±13.1 mmHg; P=0.02), and pressure-time index (PTI) during systole (2,338.0±378.1 mmHg/s per min; P=0.04) compared with those wearing CS. Nurses wearing CS exhibited lower end-SBP (103.5±14.6 mmHg; P=0.03), prolongation in left ventricular ejection time (LVET) (316.4±19.3 ms; P=0.01), and a reduction in PTI during diastole (3,194.0±414.3 mmHg/s per min; P=0.03). Conclusions: Nurses without varicose vein issues, seeking to avoid the negative effects of CS, may find that alternative forms of comfortable FS can also contribute to arterial and cardiovascular health.
Background: As low heart rate variability (HRV) has been shown to be associated with cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), attempts have been made to increase HRV through a variety of methods. It has recently been suggested that HRV might be increased by nerve stimulation. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of transcutaneous median nerve stimulation (MNS) on HRV on healthy human subjects with low HRV. Methods: This is a double-blind randomized control trial. Sixty-one healthy adults, male and female, were recruited to the study. Among the 61 participants, only 38 participants with lower than 40 standard deviation of NN interval (SDNN), mean age 49.5±6.8 years, were selected to further participate in the study. Participants underwent two sessions of either MNS (5 Hz, 100–300 μs for 20 minutes) or a sham treatment (control). Their HRV measurements were compared before, immediately after treatment, and then again 10 minutes later. Results: SDNN increased following both treatments, yet there were no effects on other HRV variables, blood pressure (BP), or resting heart rate (HR) (P>0.05). Conclusions: Transcutaneous stimulation of the left median nerve on healthy subjects, as applied in the present study, was safe and tolerable, and SDNN was increased on healthy subjects with low HRV.
