Purpose
Patients in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) experience a variety of symptoms. This descriptive correlational study aimed to determine the prevalence of symptoms and the physiological and situational factors associated with these symptoms in ICU patients.
Methods
We analyzed the Electronic Medical Records (EMRs) of 1,214 cases admitted to and discharged from the ICUs of a university hospital in Seoul over a 1-year period from June to September 2022. This analysis utilized standardized instruments embedded in EMRs and a natural language analysis framework developed by the researchers. Descriptive statistics, the x 2 test, the Fisher exact test, and multivariate logistic regression were employed to identify common symptoms and their related factors.
Results
In total, 85.7% of the cases had at least one symptom during their ICU stay, and 36.6% experienced 2 symptoms. Pain was the most frequently experienced symptom, affecting 69.5% of cases, followed by agitation (29.7%), dyspnea (29.7%), and delirium (4.8%). Multivariate logistic regression analysis indicated that the length of ICU stay influenced pain (odds ratio [OR]=1.04; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.02~1.06; p<.001), delirium (OR=1.08; 95% CI, 1.06~1.11; p<.001), agitation (OR=1.07; 95% CI, 1.05~1.10; p<.001), and dyspnea (OR=1.19; 95% CI, 1.13~1.26; p<.001).
Conclusion
Pain, agitation, and dyspnea are common in ICU patients and are associated with the length of their ICU stay. Our study identifies factors related to these symptoms that could be targeted to manage and reduce their occurrence, providing a foundation for future research on various symptom assessment tools and natural language transcripts.

PURPOSE
The purpose of this study was to examine descriptors of dyspnea and clinical characteristics in patients with COPD at ED visit. METHOD: The study design was a descriptive survey, and 46 patients with COPD complaining of dyspnea were participated during their visits to the ED of C university hospital in G city, from October 1, 2004 to April 8, 2005. RESULT: The qualitative characteristics of dyspnea at the time of decision to the ED visit were short of breath (71.7%), tight (32.6%), hard to breathe (15.2%), smothering or suffocating (10.9%), gasping (8.7%), couldn't breathe (6.5%), constricted (2.2%), and hunger for air (2.2%). In the item of dyspnea checklists, My chest felt tight was the most common description among subjects. As the result of factor analysis of dyspnea checklists, the first factor was characterized rapid and shallow, the second was suffocating/smothering, the third was hunger for air, and the fourth was constricted. CONCLUSION: This study suggests that a checklist of dyspnea descriptors based on this findings would be utilized as a tool of initial and ongoing assessment for dyspneic patients with COPD in the ED after identifying the validity and reliability of the checklist.