• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.39 no.3
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• pp.176-186
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• 2014

Objectives: As a sequel to the former analysis of the quality of life (QoL) among young-old and old-old in Korea, this research was aimed to identify factors related to the quality of life and the gender difference after controlling for the related factors among Korean elderly. Methods: Selected elderly data of 1,339 subjects from the 5th Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey conducted in 2010 was analyzed. In this survey, QoL was measured using Euro Quality of Life (EQ-5D) instrument. Data were analyzed using complex survey data analysis on IBM-SPSS 20.0. The related factors were identified using general linear models with backward elimination. The gender difference was tested also using general linear models. Results: The distributions of educational level, family income level, and presence of cohabitant were different between male and female elderly in both young-old and old-old age group. So were the health behaviors and perceived health, and experience of stress, depression, and suicidal thoughts. QoL and its subscales- mobility, self care, daily living, pain and discomfort, and anxiety and depression- were consistently better among male elderly regardless of age group. Among the variables considered, education, family income level, presence of cohabitant, perceived health, age group and BMI were found to be related to the QoL at p=.05, and presence of chronic diseases at p=.10. The difference in QoL between male and female elderly after controlling for the variables was statistically significant. Conclusion: Improving QoL is particularly important for the elderly. In order to improve QoL of the elderly, age- and gender- differences need to be considered when developing services and programs for the elderly.

• 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 Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.8-17
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• 2005

Purpose: This study was performed to investigate burden, job satisfaction and quality of life of nurses who take care of cancer patients. Methods: The subjects were 237 nurses working at the oncology unit of hospitals with over 500 beds in Seoul and Gyeonggi-do. Data were collected using questionnaire from the February to March, 2005. Data were analyzed through t-test, ANOVA, Pearson's correlation coefficient and stepwise multiple regression using SAS. Results: 1. The item that showed the highest level of burden was 'I feel limited even if I make efforts to reduce patients' pain. 'Burden was high in those group both who were younger than 35 years old and who had clinical experiences caring cancer patients for $3{\sim}4$ years. 2. The item that showed the lowest level of job satisfaction was 'the possibility of promotion'. Job satisfaction was high in those group both who had a spouse and were head nurses or incharge nurses. 3. The item that showed the lowest level of quality of life was 'I am physically exhausted'. Over 35 years old who had a spouse, and over 2,000,000 won monthly income made a high score in the quality of life. 4. There were negative correlations among burden, iob satisfaction and the quality of life. 5. The major factor affecting the quality of life was burden. Conclusion: The results of this study are expected to be utilized as basic data for developing support system to improve nurses' work conditions and quality of life.