Effects of Hospital-based Home Care for the Patients with Arthritis

재가 관절염 환자에 대한 가정 간호의 효과

The purposes of this study are to identify effectiveness of the hospital-based home care project, to manage patients' problems in comprehensive way, to decrease the patients' economical burden to the arthritis patients. The design is nonequivalent control group pretest-posttest design with matched samples in terms of age, sex and disease severity. Fifty two patients were assigned in each of the experimental and control groups in Seoul, Kyunggi, Kangwon and Kwangju. Before the experiment and after 3-month period of experiment of home care, level of pain, duration of morning stiffness, Richie Index, ADL, self-efficacy and depression were measured. Nine patients were excluded from the control group because of denial of participation. Contents of home care provided to the experimental group include distribution of prescribed drugs, assessment of patient's condition and side-reactions of drug, pain control, depression control, nutrition guide, exercise teaching, and family counselling. Patients assigned to the control group visited the outpatient clinic once a month as usual. Null hypotheses were selected because physicians concerned about the ineffective change of patients' conditions due to indirect communication with patients through nurses. Level of pain, Richie Index, ADL, self-efficacy, depression and duration of morning stiffness did not significantly different between two groups as expected. In the experimental group, level of pain, ADL, Richie Index and duration of morning stiffness changed to the positive direction from the pretest to the posttest. However, level of depression and self-efficacy did not show any changes. Ninety percent of patients in the experimental group satisfied with the home care provided to them. Since this is the intermediate report, more detailed and long-term report will be prepared.