• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.18 no.9
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• pp.203-215
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• 2017

Delirium is an acute confused state associated with poor outcomes among hospitalized long-term care hospital elderly patients. This study was conducted to examine the effects of acomfort promotion program based on Kolcaba's comfort theory for prevention of delirium among elderly patients who have been hospitalized in long-term care hospitals. The study used was a quasi-experimental type, with two groups of patients; those who received their usual care plus comfort nursing intervention (n=34) and those who only received usual care methods. Using the IBMSPSS/PC (Version 21), the homogeneity of the control and intervention group wereevaluated by the chi-squared test and an independent t-test, and all collected data wereanalyzed. Hypotheses were tested by independent t-tests and repeated measures of ANOVA. Delirium occurred at a rate of 2.9% (1/34) in the intervention group and 14% (5/34) -in the control group ($x^2=3.98$, p=0.047). The severity of the delirium in theintervention group was lower than that of the control (t=2.27, p=.027). The duration of delirium was 2days in the intervention group and 2-10days in the control group, indicating delirium in the intervention group lasted for a significantly shorter period ($x^2=3.22$, p=0.048). According to the change of time, the intervention group showed improvement in all areas including comfort scores (F=108.85, p<0.001), anxiety scores (F=63.39, p<0.001), depression scores (F=89.78, p<0.001), quality of sleep scores (F=63.63, p<0.001), and pain scores (F=93.64, p<0.001). In conclusion, elderly patients who were admitted to nursing homes were advised to participate in nursing intervention,which effectivelyprevented delirium based on the Kolcaba's comfort theory of physical, psychological, spiritual, social, cultural and environmental approaches to prevent delirium. Therefore, it is necessary to extend the program for prevention of delirium in the physical, psychological, spiritual, social, cultural, and environmental contexts to prevent delirium in geriatric hospitalized elderly patients.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.18 no.9
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• pp.157-166
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• 2017

This study was conducted to identify the level of diabetes self-care knowledge, confidence, behavior and quality of life in elderly people with diabetes. The participants were 205 elderly with diabetes who visited a citizen health center located in D city. Korea. The data were collected from April, 20th to August 31th, 2015, and were analyzed by the t-test and ANOVA. The results were as follows; 1) The mean scores for diabetes self-care knowledge, confidence, behavior, and quality of life were 6.99 (2.17), 71.27 (10.21), 62.78 (1.29) and 0.86, respectively. 2) There were significant differences in the self-care behavior according to the education level, duration of diabetes mellitus and subjective health, and the quality of life differeddepending on the level of subjective health(F=35.253, p=0.000). 3) Knowledge of diabetes diet was the lowest among the various aspects of diabetes self-care knowledge. Confidence for exercise was lowest, while confidence for medication and blood sugar check was highest. However, the participants exhibited good medication behavior, whereasthey did not carry out blood glucose checks in their self-care management behavior. The most uncomfortable aspect of the quality of life was found to be pain and discomfort. Based on the results of this study, it is necessary to develop guidelines and methods for dietary education reflecting the dietary habits of Koreans, and to investigatethe reasonsfor thelow performance of theblood glucose check. In addition, customized nursing interventionstaking into consideration the characteristics of elderly with diabetes need to be developed and verified.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.99-107
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• 2012

Purpose: Most terminally ill cancer patients die from cancer anorexia-cachexia syndrome. This study evaluated a prognostic role of plasma leptin levels in terminally ill cancer patients. Methods: This study enrolled 69 terminally ill cancer patients who were aged above 20 years old from July 2009 to July 2010. For univariate analysis, an association between leptin levels and patient's characteristics or other variables was examined using Spearman's correlation analysis, Wilcoxon's rank-sum test or Kruskal-Wallis test, as appropriately. For multivariable analysis, Cox's proportional hazard regression model was used to evaluate a clinical significance of plasma leptin levels as a prognostic factor and to determine factors which affect the risk of death in terminally ill cancer patients. Results: A statistically significant positive correlation between plasma leptin levels and survival time was found. Univariate Cox's proportional hazard regression analyses also showed a moderately significant association between plasma leptin levels and survival time. However, after adjusting variables for sex, white blood cell counts, total bilirubin, AST, ALT, albumin and CRP levels, plasma leptin levels were not significantly associated with survival time. Conclusion: No significant association was found between plasma leptin levels and survival time in terminally ill cancer patients. However, this study suggested a prognostic value of plasma leptin levels in gastrointestinal cancer patients.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.17 no.8
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• pp.453-463
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• 2019

The purpose of this study was to investigate one-person household its health-related quality of life(HRQOL) using data from the seventh Korea national health and nutrition examination survey(KNHANES Ⅶ-2) 2017. The subjects were 301. The data were analyzed by frequency, descriptive analysis and linear regression analysis using SPSS complex samples Win 25 program. The HRQOL score was 0.92, and 2.5% of the subjects in the pain and discomfort area had severe problems. HRQOL related to the subject was 0.034, 0.039, and 0.031, respectively, when the household income level was lower, the education level was lower than elementary school graduates, and if they did not drink at present. HRQOL was 0.072, 0.065, 0.103, and 0.040 in perceived health status good or moderate, the absence of activity limitation and arthritis, was explained 43.1%. There is a need to develop interdisciplinary approaches with great interest in improving the one-person households HRQOL.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.131-142
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• 2005

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to survey the knowledge and needs of hospice for inpatients' family. Methods: This study was carried out with 277 inpatients' families at J General Hospital located in J city, Korea during the period from March to May, 2004. The data were collected through a self-reporting questionnaire constructed by the authors. The data were analyzed by descriptive statistics and $x^2-test$ with SPSSWIN 10.0. Results: 83.8% of the respondents heard about hospice mostly through mass communication. 76.9% of the respondents recognized hospice to be helpful and to provide comfort during the remainder of life and to confront the moment of death. Most of the respondents responded positively to the necessity of hospice service, and would receive hospice if necessary. 76.5% of them would consider arranging preparation for death if he/she were to be diagnosed with a terminal illness. 63.9% of the respondents wanted only to be with their family members, 31.4% wanted both the family and hospice members at the moment of death. They named the best helper among the hospice members to be the nurse. 81.6% of the respondents wanted a hospice institution to be established, 23.8% of them report that the most adequate hospice management institution would be the hospice ward in hospital. Conclusion: Consequently, most respondents wanted hospice services. So Korean society is in need of developing adequate teaching and care programs for hospice according to local needs.