Self Management of Pain by Folk Remedies in Patient with Chronic Arthritis

만성 관절염 환자의 민간요법을 이용한 자가통증조절 행태

The purpose of this study was to explore self management of pain by folk remedies in patient with chronic arthritis. The participant of this study were 90 volunteers who were visit C hospital and who want to counsel with researcher for their pain control by convenient sampling method. The results of this study were summarized as follows : The subjects were the 90 patients who had been diagnosed rehumatoid arthritis(52.5%)and osteoarthritis(47.8). 93.3% of participants were women. Mean age of participants was 53.7 and duration of arthritis was 7 years. Mean pain score was 5.5cm. Eighty five kinds of folk remedies were used for pain management. The mean cost for folk remedies was 3,723,207 won and the patients with rheumatoid arthritis paid to folk remedies as much as 3 times. The perceived effect score of pain management by folk remedies was 2.932(the range of perceived effect score were 0-10cm). Percentage of discontinue to use folk remedies was 82.8% and the major reason of discontinue to use folk remedies was no effect to pain control(50.4%). Some participants(30.5%) were experienced side effect such as exacerbation of pain(50.5%). In conculusion, chronic arthritis patients have been experienced various kind of folk remedies for the management of their pain. But the effect of pain control was very low. The important weakness of folk remedies were economical waste and loss of opportunity to treatment for arthritis. The nurse who care for arthritis should be teach about weakness of folk remedies for their pain control to the patients with arthritis.