PURPOSE
The purpose of the study was to understand what are the experiences and management of type 2 diabetes in everyday lives among Korean people.
METHODS
A grounded theory method was utilized to explore how people with type 2 diabetes to experience and manage their disease under the Korean socio-cultural context. The data were collected via narrative in-depth interviews with 21 people with type 2 diabetes during 2010-2011 and all interviews were transcribed for verbatim analysis.
RESULTS
The core category was 'Rearranging everyday lives by accepting diabetes as lifelong annoying companion.' Four stages were identified: ignoring; struggling compromising and conciliating. Each stage illustrates major problems and/or strategies that the participants face in dealing with diabetes. The process illustrates the transference from their ordinary life, in which diabetes or health was ignored, to the health-oriented life, within which diabetes is integrated into their lives. The most difficult barriers they faced in everyday lives include social stigma of diabetes and collectivistic culture in Korea. Within the culture, the group goals are concerned over individual ones, making it harder for the participants to take care of their own health.
CONCLUSION
The findings of the study imply that health care professionals may consider the influence of social stigma in caring diabetic patients. Also, the intervention study is warranted to educate Korean people with diabetes to get aware of the sociocultural context and stigma as well as personal difficulties in self-caring diabetes.

Citations

• The Mediating Effect of Acceptance Action in the Relationship between Diabetes Distress and Self-stigma among Old Adults with Diabetes in South Korea
  Hyesun Kim, Kawoun Seo
  Journal of Korean Academy of Community Health Nursing.2022; 33(4): 446.     CrossRef
• Association among Lifestyle Factors, Obesity, C-peptide Secretion, Metabolic Syndrome, and Cardiovascular Risk in Adults with Newly Diagnosed Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus: A Case Study
  Sun-Young Kwon, Hye-Ja Park
  Journal of Health Informatics and Statistics.2019; 44(2): 125.     CrossRef
• Samoan migrants’ perspectives on diabetes: A qualitative study
  Yasin Shahab, Olataga Alofivae‐Doorbinnia, Jennifer Reath, Freya MacMillan, David Simmons, Kate McBride, Penelope Abbott
  Health Promotion Journal of Australia.2019; 30(3): 317.     CrossRef
• A Review of Qualitative Research in Korea: The Life Experiences of Diabetes Patients
  Been Yoo
  The Journal of Korean Diabetes.2017; 18(4): 270.     CrossRef

PURPOSE
Liver transplantation (LT) is the best treatment for patients with end-stage liver disease and most patients with LT return to their normal life. However, pregnancy and childbirth for women with LT are less common, mainly because it is considered to be dangerous for their health. The purpose of this study was to describe how Korean women after LT experience their pregnancy and childbirth.
METHODS
This study was designed to explore the experiences of pregnancy and childbirth of women with LT. Data were collected by individual in-depth interviews with four women who were pregnant and gave birth following LT in 2009. All interviews were audio-taped and transcribed verbatim. The transcribed data were analyzed using qualitative content analysis.
RESULTS
Four themes emerged as a result of analysis: recovery of lost feminity and marriage; fulfilling roles through pregnancy; life-risking pregnancy; and perfect family achieved by childbirth. These themes describe in detail about challenges and concerns the women with LT faced for their pregnancy and childbirth as well as many emotionally touching experiences.
CONCLUSION
The results of this study would support health professionals to be better prepared to help women with LT for pregnancy and childbirth by providing in-depth and insightful information.

Citations

• Lived Experiences of Korean Young Adults After Heart Transplantation: A Phenomenological Approach
  Hye Jin Yoo, Eunyoung E. Suh
  Asian Nursing Research.2021; 15(2): 89.     CrossRef

Purpose
s: This study was designed to explore the stage distribution of subjects according to stage of change for calcium intake and for exercise, and to identify factors that could discriminate among subjects in various stages.
METHODS
The sample consisted of 142 subjects who had taken bone mineral densitometry tests. The instruments used in this study were the Stage Placement Instrument for Calcium Intake and Exercise, the Osteoporosis Health Belief Scale and the Osteoporosis Knowledge Test, and the Osteoporosis Self Efficacy Scale. Data were analyzed using chi square, ANOVA, and discriminant analysis by using the SPSS 12.0 program.
RESULTS
For calcium stages, economic level, calcium knowledge, positive social norms for calcium intake, & educational level showed high standardized canonical discriminant function coefficients. For exercise stages, exercise efficacy, susceptibility, exercise benefit, educational level, positive social norm to exercise, educational level, and exercise barrier showed high standardized canonical discriminant function coefficients.
CONCLUSION
This study implies that bone mass promoting program incorporating a stages of change model can be applied as useful nursing intervention.

PURPOSE
The aim of this study was to identify the age-related differences in risk perception of breast cancer and the age-related differences in predictors of risk perception. METHOD: The subjects were 553 women aged from 15 to 64 who lived in Seoul, Kwang-Ju, Jeon-nam province. Data was collected by self-reported questionnaire surveys using convenience sampling. The collected data was analyzed using descriptive statistics, F-test with Scheffe test, and stepwise multiple regression with SPSS-Win 10.0 version. RESULT: Risk perception of breast cancer was different by age group. Especially, risk perception in teenagers and the 50~64 years group was lower than the other groups. Additionally, general fear of breast cancer, information seeking style, experience, and knowledge were different between the age groups. The results of multiple regression analyses predicting risk perception indicated the following significant predictors: general fear and knowledge in all the subjects, general fear and experience in the 20~29 years group, and general fear in the other age groups. CONCLUSION: These results suggested that the construction of educational messages for breast cancer prevention and early detection should be designed differently for each age group.

PURPOSE
This study was conducted to describe qualitatively the entities of nurse's experiences in general hospitals and to suggest basic data guiding research on developing Standards of clinical nursing practice in Korea.
METHOD
Fourteen nurses working at general hospitals with over 300 beds in Seoul were interviewed in-depth until saturation using tape-recorders and transcription.
RESULT
The central theme of clinical nursing practice experienced by subjects was "being with clients" that means accepting client's personal character, solving client's needs and providing client-centered nursing. A also "being with clients" was felt to be the responsibility of nurses which was learned from their nursing schools. The nursing strategies performed in order to be with patients were proving skillful nursing techniques, accepting, educating, emotional support, advocating, and self-reflecting, the subjects experienced somewhat problematic affects such as difficulties in interpersonal relationship, work overload, negative image of nursing, deficit of self-confidence for nursing actions, poor working conditions, and unfair treatment. Nurses at the hospital practiced with pride when they felt that they were accepted by clients.
CONCLUSION
Further research is needed to analysis problems in clinical practice and the comparison of nurses' experiences of clinical practice, with nurses' experiences in various settings.

PURPOSE
This study was performed to identify the illness intrusiveness, quality of life, and their relationships in patients with chronic liver disease.
METHOD
Data was collected using scales of illness intrusiveness developed by Devins et al and Korean health related quality of life (KoQoLS) developed by Shim et al to measure the illness intrusiveness and quality of life from 141 chronic liver disease patients.
RESULT
The total mean score of illness intrusiveness was 38.85+/-18.45. The domain of illness intrusiveness which showed the highest mean score was health (4.60+/-2.02), and the lowest mean score domain was relationship with spouse (2.04+/-1.69). The subcategory of KoQoLS which showed the highest mean score was bodily pain (6.96+/-2.98), and the lowest mean score subcategory was vitality (2.75+/-1.20). There were negative relationships between illness intrusiveness and KoQoLS in all subcategories. Abovel all, Illness intrusiveness had the strongest negative relationship with role limitation (r=-0.641) among the KoQoLS subcategories.
CONCLUSION
Because the illness intrusiveness had negative influence on the quality of life in patients with chronic liver disease, further research will need to specify detailed illness intrusiveness and to explore influencing factors on quality of life in them.

PURPOSE
The purpose of this study was to assess the characteristics of the user of complementary?alternative therapies(CAT) and to identify the important predictive factors associated with them.
METHOD
This study included 142 patients attending outpatient rheumatology clinics of D Hospital in Busan between July and August in 2001. The multiple logistic regression model was developed to estimate the likelihood of user or nonuser of CAT.
RESULT
The duration of illness and chance score of health locus of control were found to be significant factors through the estimated coefficients of using CAT. Duration of illness is longer and chance score of health locus of control is higher in patients who have used CAT in past than that of nonuser. When the model performance was evaluated by comparing the observed outcome with predicted outcome, the model correctly identified 95% of user of CAT and 31% of nonuser.
CONCLUSION
In this survey, duration of illness and chance score of health locus of control are found to be significant factors in predicting utilization of CAT. Nurses who care for rheumatoid arthritis patients should take consideration into health locus of control in planning health education programs.

PURPOSE
This study was performed to develop a scale for evaluation of attitudes toward complementary and alternative therapies (CAT) and to investigate nurses' attitudes toward CAT.
METHOD
The subjects were 263 nurses working at a university hospital in Seoul and Inchon. The personally designed questionnaire was tested for its reliability and validity. Nurses' attitudes to CAT were evaluated using the questionnaire.
RESULTS
Cronbach's alpha coefficient was 0.7405. 23 items were selected by item analysis and 4 factors including application, therapeutic effect, social interest and communication about CAT were classified by factor analysis. The mean score of attitudes and its subcategories were high, especially that of communication was very high. Nurses had a positive response to CAT in several items; acceptance as nursing intervention, its therapeutic value, complement for conventional medicine, and open communication about CAT. Attitudes were different significantly according to education and number of working years. There were high relationships between attitudes and its subcategories except communication.
CONCLUSION
The Scale of attitudes toward CAT was proven to be reliable and valid. Positive nurses' attitudes toward CAT will help the patients be provided with a proper and safe way to take CAT.

In Korea, most of the patients with chronic liver diseases have been using some kind of alternative therapies at home. however, the question is why do people turn to alternative therapy and how the patients are able to use the alternative therapies widely, though the effects have not been proven scientifically. Therefore, it is necessary to explore the process of the patients' experiences using the alternative therapies. The 16 participants were from internal- medical departments in hospital and the permission was received to participate in this study from the subjects. The data were collected with interviews and participants observations, analyzed by the grounded theory methodology of Strauss and Corbin(1990). With the analysis of the data, 15 categories were generated such as psychological pressures, barriers of role performances, distrusts of western medicine, blind obediences to the treatments, attitudes towards alternative therapies, supportive systems, obstacles to taking alternative therapies, financial burdens, collecting informations, pursuing alternative modalities, efforting diversities, analyzing by themselves, managing the body, accepting the disease, and ambivalence. The paradigm model was developed to identify the relationships of categories. The central phenomenon of the experiences of seeking alternative therapies was named jagi momdasrim. The central concept of jagi momdasrim is a mind-set to desire to wellness and to take more responsibility for one's own healing by pursuing alternate healing modalities rather than the western medical system. The process of jagi momdasrim evolved several stages such as seeking, finding, struggling, overcoming, fulfilling, and governing the diseases. Four patterns of taking alternative therapies were found as follows: the bulsin-chujong-hyung, the suyoung-hyung, the yangdari-gulchiki-hyung, the chamjae-hyung. In conclusion, the phenomenon of alternative therapies as consumer-driven force to heal the chronic liver diseases of the patients could be explained as an adaptive behavior through the process of jagi momdasrim. However, since most of the participants practicing some kind of alternative therapies had no evidences of its effects and never tried to consult with their medical doctors about alternative therapies, we should approach more actively. Therefore, it is recommended for nurses to listen and watch the patients behaviors of using alternative therapies and find out how to educate the patients about the proper and safe way to take the alternative therapies.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relation between hypertension and risk factors. A positive association between obesity, age, serum lipid and such life style factors as smoking, exercise, alcoholic beverage use with blood pressure problems and the prevalence of hypertension has been described in many studies. Therefore to identify and evaluate the effects of variables, which were known to be related to hypertension, multiple regression analysis was performed. We studied 110 subjects. The participants were 45 men and 65 women who visited one university hospital located in Seoul from January to December 1998. All 110 persons were identified as having primary hypertension by their physicians. The significant risk factors identified for hypertension were Obesity, BMI, length of time with hypertension. The results were as follows; 1. The systolic blood pressure average in 110 subjects was 156.65mmHg +/- 14.08mmHg, the diastolic blood pressure average was 100.73mmHg +/- 5.64mmHg. 18.2% of the subjects were smokers, 26.4% of the subjects were drinkers, and 33.6% of the subjects exercised regularly. 13.6% had a family history of hypertension. The average mean pressure was 119.37 +/- 7.40mmHg. The average history of hypertension was 28.36 +/- 34.56months. The average body weight of subjective was 65.25kg, and their average BMI was 24.54kg/m2. The average serum cholesterol of the subjects was 204.54mg/dl, HDL was 50.93mg/dl. 2. The result of this study were that variables which showed significance rationale for high systolic blood pressure in hypertension were mean arterial pressure(R2=0.808), and age(R2=0.032). And the variables which showed significance rationale for diastolic blood pressure in hypertension were mean arterial pressure(R2=0.697), age(R2=0.051), sex(R2=0.014), and somking(R2=0.010). And the best variable for prediction of mean blood pressure was the length of history of the disease. 3. According to multiple regression analysis by demographic variables, age and the length of history of hypertension were predictable variables for hypertension. And mean the blood pressure was identified best explaining variable of hypertension by biophysical variables. Therefore, life style modification for hypertension patients as a primary regimen is less important than for normal blood pressure patients. Life style modification is important intervention for normal blood pressure subjects, on the other hand drug therapy and its compliance is the most important intervention for hypertensive subjects. So to regulate blood pressure and prevent the complication of hypertension, the first regime of all should pharmacologic therapy. There is a need to develop nursing intervention to improve pharmacologic compliance for primary hypertension patients.

Chronic liver disease was characterized difficult to cure, long-standing disease. Patients with chronic liver disease were searching for complementary treatments to recover form illness, while they have been treated by the doctor. This study was carried out to explore application of alternative therapies in patients with chronic liver disease. For this survey, the questionnaire were developed by researchers and the data were collected for two months. Among the 192 subjects, 155 were hospitalized and 37 were out patient department and the majority of diagnoses were chronic hepatitis (42.2%), liver cirrhosis (31.3%), primary liver carcinoma (14.6%). The results were as follows. 1. Patients who have had experiences with alternative therapies were 128, not undergone were 64. Varried alternative therapies were used and 46.9% of 128 subjects used both hospitals and alternative therapies simultaneously. 2. Patients have looked for alternative therapies in the early stage of disease (71.1%), and motivated to decide a matter of having use complementary therapies as alternatives for treatments (64.8%), and obtained information from their families and friends (48.2%), mass media (14.8%). The majority of patients were acknowledged that laternative treatments have no effectiveness really but it gives them psychological comfort. And the patients have payed a lot of money in cost of alternative therapies fee ; 1.4 times higher than hospitals. 3. Among the 128 subjects, 43.8% patients were communicated with their physicians about complementary therapies, 56.2% were not. 82.1% patients who asked their physicians were experienced negative responses of their doctors. 4. patients were expected the higher effect of alternative therapies when they have been delivered treatment by hospitals with complementary therapies (chi2=57.84, P<0.05), and then they evaluated the treatment effect better in this treatment pattern (chi2=25.26, P<0.05). And in terms of general characteristics of the patients, the only duration of illness was showed the significant relationship with the utilization of alternative therapies (chi2=8.44, P<0.05). 5. In no used alternative therapies group, the reason that they have not taken alternative therapies were ; to keep their physician's prescription, to refuse alternative therapies by their physicians, and to have no trust themselves on alternative therapies. In conclusion, the further study will be required the patients' experience using alternative therapies as the progress of disease in terms of holistic view of patients.