The purpose of this article was to identify trend in Arthritis research and to provide ba an approach of Arthritis research. The results of analysis of 69 Arthritis articles public year of between 1970-1999 found that most articles(27.6%, n=19) were published since few(10.1%, n=7) were before 1994. Vast majority of articles(79.8%, n=55) were printed in The Journal of Rheumatology Health, and 79.8%(n=55) of those were quantitative research, 8.7%(n=6) were qualitative research, and 14%(n=1) was methodological research. 29.0%(n=20) of quantitative research were carried in experimental design and over half(50.8%, n=35) in nonexperimental design. Having concerned the types of treatment(or intervention) used in experimental study, the most common treatment was 'exercise' (45.0%, n=9), and other less common were 'self-help education(15.0%, n=3), home care(10.0%, n=2) supportive care(10.0%, n=2), flexibility exercise combined with local heat therapy(5.0%, n=1), relaxation training(5.0%, n=1). Of the types of exercise, aquatic exercise was 30.0%(n=6). The effect of exercise on outcome variable was found to be most strong among the other types of treatment. 18 articles of nonexperimental research were correlational research. From the analysis of correlational research, 29 concepts were identified, and the relationship between depression and other variable were strongly reported. In descriptive studies, most commonly physiological variables were examined in 5 articles(29.5%). Only one study(5.9%) explored patient's perception of the causal factors and those causality. In qualitative researches, two study were carried out by the means of grounded theory. Majority of those subjects were RA patients, and the largest number of sample were 23 and the smallest was 1 In two studies, patient's perceived causality of RA was identified as a research problems, and an experience of ADL, fatigue Phenomenon, an experience of having a total knee replacement with osteoarthritis were each found in one study. Methodological research was carried out to test validity and reliability of the RA Fatigue Scale.

Rheumatoid arthritis as one of the chronic illness requiring management in long period of time puts great burden to patients, their family and society. For patients with chronic illnesses, providing a social support is important and the most important source comes from spouses. Therefore we assessed burden of husbands of female rheumatoid arthritic patients and also found out the factors affecting burden. The sample of study was 107 female rheumatoid arthritic patients and their spouses. The tool of assessing spouses' burden was the revised version of subjective and objective parameters developed by Montgomery et al.(1985). The results are as follows: 1. General characteristics of patients and spouses: The mean age of the patients was 48 years. Educational level of patients was high school 41.1%. The mean age of the spouses was 51years. Educational level of spouses was mostly high school(40.2%) and college(29.9%) graduate. The mean marital period was 23.4years. Average income per month was 1,609,000 won. The average duration since diagnosis was 9.4years. As a therapy, 67.3% chose standard drug therapy. Average rating of discomfort by patient was 3.05(range 1-5) and that of severity was 3.48 and that of dependency was 2.58. The husband's rating of their spouses disease severity was 3.68. 2. Husbands' burden: The average burden in subjective items was 21.61(range 6-36) and objective items was 35.24(range 10-60). The average of total burden was 56.59(range 16-96). 3. Husband's total burden correlated with patient's age, educational level of patients, therapy method, patient's level of discomfort, patient's severity, patient's level of dependence, husband's recognition of level of severity in statistical level. Husband's objective burden correlated with patient's age, educational level of patient, patient's level of discomfort, husband's recognition of level of severity. Husband's subjective burden correlated with patient's age, educational level of patients, therapy method, patient's severity, patient's level of dependence, husband's recognition of level of severity. 4. Linear correlation analysis on burden: The husbands' total burden is explained in 37 7% by husband's recognition of level of severity and husband's age. The husbands' objective burden is explained in 31.2% by patient's level of dependence, husband's age, husband's recognition of level of severity. The husbands' subjective burden is explained in 26.7% by husband's recognition of level of severity and patient's age. In conclusion, husbands' level of burden is affected by many factors and therefore nursing strategy for relieving burden of middle aged husbands should be individualized taking these factors into consideration.

The purpose of this study is to describe anxiety, depression and disease activity index(SLEDAI) and correlations among these variables, to provide the basic information developing apporiate nursing interventions for the lupus patients. In this study, authors evaluated anxiety, depression and SLEDAI from 39 lupus patients at one university hospital in Seoul. Data were collected by using questionnaires and reviewing medical records. Frequencies, t-test, Duncan's multiple range test after ANOVA were evaluated with SAS program. The key results were as follows : 1. The average age of the subjects was 31.0 years and ranged from 20 to 51. Female comprised 70.9% and 79.5% were unemployed and housewife. Fifty one point nine percent of the sample had a spouse and above junior college graduates. 74.4% of the sample had a religion and average length of suffering from lupus was 66.59 months. Majority(94.9%) of the subjects had experience of hospitalization, and 55.3% had experience of learning about lupus and average number of learning was 3.9. 2. The average anxiety score of the subjects was 44.53, showing significant relationship with educational background(t=2.27, p< .05), monthly income(F=4.56. p< .05). 3. The depression score was 41.85, showing significant relationship with monthly income(F=3.81 p=0.0236) experience of learning about lupus(t=2.09, p< .05). 4. The SLEDAI score was 12.36, showing no significant relationship with demographical variables. 5. Anxiety showed positive correlations with depression(r=0.76, p< .001), SLEDAI(r=0.48, p< .01), and depression showed positive correlations with SLEDAI(r=0.42, p< .001).

This study was conducted to clarify the effect of physical ability, pain, fatigue, depression, sexual satisfaction, and spouse criticism on the sexual intrusiveness of rheumatoid arthritis(RA)women. The subjects of the study were 89 RA outpatients who visited the department of rheumatology of Dong-A University Hospital in Pusan from March 2000 to April, 2000. Pain & Fatigue via graphic rating scale, depression via CES-D(Center for Epidemiologic Studies -Depression) scale and physical ability via the Health Assessment questionnaire(HAQ) were assessed. Also we used both Sexual satisfaction scale(Kim, et al, 1997) to measure sexual satisfaction and Spouse criticism scale(Kraaimaat et al. 1996) to measure spouse criticism. The Intrusiveness rating scale which was derived from Arthritis Impact Measurement Scale(AIMS) was used to measure illness intrusiveness in sexuality. The relationships between the variables such as pain, depression, fatigue, physical ability, spouse criticism, sexual satisfaction and illness intrusiveness on sexuality were analyzed by Pearson correlation. As a result, pain & depression were significantly positively related to illness intrusiveness and physical ability & sexual satisfaction was significantly negatively related to illness intrusiveness. But these variables were interrelated. So hierarchical regression was performed to examine the relative contribution of pain, depression, physical ability, and sexual satisfaction with regard to intrusiveness of RA on sexuality. It revealed that pain, depression & sexual satisfaction predicted significantly illness intrusiveness on sexuality. Therefore it is very important to reduce pain and depression and to increase sexual satisfaction for reducing illness intrusiveness.

This study was conducted to identify the relationships among self-care agency, family support, qualify of life in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. The subjects were 120 rheumatoid arthritis patients who attended RA O.P.D. at a university hospital, located in Daegu city, from 10th of May in 1998 to 30th of July in 1998. Three structure questionnaires were administered for explore three main research variables; 소향숙's self-care agency scale, 강현숙's family support scale, and 김종임's quality of life scale of RA patien. Data analysis was conducted with SPSS program including percentage, mean, standard deviation, mean score, Pearson Correlation Coefficient, multiple regression, and Cronbach's Alpha. Results are summarized as follows; 1. The mean of RA patient's self-care agency was 136.62, the mean of family support 37.38, and the mean of qualify of life 134.41. 2. Subject's self-care agency was positively correlated with family support(r=.2446) and with quality of life(r=.4341). Subject's family support was positively correlated with quality of life(r=.2630). 3. Stepwise multiple regression was used to determine the predictors of subject's quality of life. Significant predictors for subject's quality of life were self-care agency(t=4.873 p=0.0000), family support(t=4.480 p=0.0000) and the severity of arthralgia(t=-3.838, p=0.0002). The number of joints involved and the periods of illness did not show significant contribution to subject's quality of life. Self-care agency, family support, and family support explained 40. 39% of the variance in RA patient's quality of life. Given this results, it is suggested that a repeated study to measure RA patient's self-care practice in their own life may be needed to develope and validate an optimum level of nursing intervention for RA patient with which family support will be encouraged and patient's self-care agency will be facilitated.

This study was conducted to test the effect of brisk walking & muscle strengthening exercise program on bone mineral density(BMD) of the lumbar & femur in rheumatoid arthritis women. Research design was a quasi-experimental study of non-equivalent control group pretest-posttest design(16 weeks). 14 for the experimental group and 14 for the control group were selected from the outpatients on rheumatoid arthritis clinic of Dong-A University Hospital. The experimental group underwent 16 weeks of brisk walking and muscle strengthening exercise. Bone mineral density was measured before and after 16 weeks of exercise by DXA at lumbar spine, femoral neck, Ward's triangle and trochanter. The results were summarized as follows : 1. BMD of the lumbar spine in experimental group who carried out the brisk walking and muscle strengthening exercise was not significantly increased after 16weeks and there was no significant difference between experimental and control group(U=70.00 p>.05). 2. BMD of the femoral neck in the experimental group who carried out the brisk walking and muscle strengthening exercises was significantly increased after 16 weeks(Z=-2.901 p<.01). But, there was no significant difference between experimental and control group(U=83.00 p>.05). 3. BMD of the femoral Ward's triangle in the experimental group who carried out the brisk walking and muscle strengthening exercises was significantly increased after 16 weeks (Z=-2.355 p<.05). But, there was no significant difference between experimental and control group(U=86.00 p>.05). 4. BMD of the femoral trochanter in experimental group who carried out the brisk walking and muscle strengthening exercise was not significantly increased after 16weeks and there was no significant difference between experimental and control group(U=75.00 p>.05). These results suggest that brisk walking and muscle strengthening exercise program has an effect on promoting bone mineral density of femoral neck and Ward's triangle in rheumatoid arthritis women.

This study was conducted to find out the relationship among several variables such as health status, self-efficacy, health related hardiness, family support and pain in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. The subjects were 108 patients with rheumatoid arthritis who visited the out patient department of Rheumatism at E university hospital in Teajon. Data were collected by questionnaire from November 26, 1999 to January 14, 2000. The instrument used in this study were health status developed by Bae et al(1998), self-efficacy scale developed by KRHPS, health related hardiness modified by Suh(1988), family support scale developed by Kang(1984), Pain with graphic rating scale. Data were analyzed by descriptive statistics, one-way ANOVA, Pearson Correlation Coefficient, multiple regression using the SPSS Win program. The results were as follows; 1. There were no statistically significant differences between general characteristics and variables such as health status, self-efficacy, health related hardiness and family support respectively. 2. Statistically significant differences were not found between clinical characteristic and variables such as health status, self-efficacy, health related hardiness and family support respectively. 3. Significant correlations were found between health status and self-efficacy, self-efficacy and hardiness, hardiness and family support, health status and pain, self-efficacy and pain respectively(p<0.01), and health status and hardiness, self-efficacy and family support, hardiness and pain respectively(p<0.05). 4. Self-efficacy and pain were significant affecting factors of a health status. In these results, it is suggested that nursing intervention to increase self-efficacy and to reduce pain was very important for patients with rheumatoid arthritis.