PURPOSE
The purpose of this study was to examine the degree of self-care, symptom experience and disease state among the patients with liver cirrhosis and to identify its correlation.
METHODS
The subjects were 220 patients with liver cirrhosis who were treated in D-university hospital in Busan. The instruments used for study were the self-care inventory, the symptom experience inventory and modified childpugh classification scale.
RESULTS
The average points of the patient's self-care performance, symptom experience, and disease status were 3.67, 29.10 and 6.12 respectively. Their self care was negatively correlated to symptom experience, and symptom experience was positively correlated to disease state.
CONCLUSION
This research findings suggested that active self-care by patients with liver cirrhosis might contribute to reduce various symptoms they can undergo and to prevent aggravation of disease state. Therefore, patients with liver cirrhosis have to carry out self care actively in daily life and discreet nursing intervention should be offered to facilitate their self-care.

PURPOSE
The purpose of this study were to investigate the level of family support, alcohol consumption and drinking motives in patients with liver cirrhosis and to examine the relationships among those variables.
METHODS
The subjects consisted of 60 patients with liver cirrhosis. Family support scale, Q-F methods and Drinking Motives Questionnaire were used to measure the level of family support, alcohol consumption and drinking motives.
RESULTS
The level of family support was 43.62. Prevalence of drinking was 90% and 43.3% were currently heavy drinkers. Alcohol consumption was related to sex and education. There were positive low relationships between the level of enhancement motive, coping motive, social motive, and Q-F Index.
CONCLUSION
Alcohol drinking is a serious health problem in patients with liver cirrhosis. It is necessary to have an educational approach for controlling drinking and family support.

PURPOSE
The purpose of this study is to examine the factors influencing symptom experience in patients with liver cirrhosis(LC). METHOD: A descriptive correlational study design was used. A convenience sample of 129 subjects was recruited from the gastroenterology department at two university hospitals in Seoul, Korea. Symptom experience in LC was measured with the instrument developed by the researcher based on Theory of Unpleasant Symptoms(Lenz et al, 1995) and the Child-Pugh Score, the Korean version of Profile of Mood States, and the Family Support Questionnaire were used to identify the factors influencing symptom experience. RESULTS: The mean score of symptom experience was relatively low(M=41.67, SD= 24.71). Among individual symptoms, fatigue had the highest score in all dimensions. Fatigue, abdominal distension and/or peripheral edema, muscle cramps, dry mouth, and change in appearance were explored as symptoms needing management. In the regression analysis, symptom experience was found to be influenced significantly by anxiety/depression(R2=.418, p=.000) and the severity of LC(Child-Pugh Score)(R2=.125, p=.000). These variables explained 54.3% of the variance in symptom experience(F=63.607. p=.000). CONCLUSION: It suggests that nurses need to take into consideration psychological factor as well as physiological factor in symptom management for patients with LC.

PURPOSE
The aim of this study was to identify the experience of patients with liver cirrhosis. METHOD: This study was performed from march 2003 to June 2003. The participators were five men. Data collected through in-depth personal interviews, which were recorded and analysed according to the Colazzi's method. RESULT: Liver cirrhosis was classified into 20 themes, 70 formulated meaning, and 10 categories. The Result confirmed that the experience of liver cirrhosis patients were classified into 10 categories; unexpected change, limited daily living and role, difficult compliance with therapeutic regimen, unbelief so untreated with apathy, negative emotional change, lack of cause perception, self control, perceived family support, expectations for recovery and healing. CONCLUSION: We, cooperative researchers, realized that to reduce not only the days of hospital treatment and the economic loss, as well as the expenditure of insurance the importance of managing liver cirrhosis from early diagnosis and the physical, spiritual, social role in studying the patients who experience liver cirrhosis.

The purpose of this study was to identify the effect of structured information provided on knowledge and self-care behavior. The subjects of this study were both hospitalized patients and outpatients in K university hospital. The instrument use for this study were the knowledge assessment tool and self-care behavior assessment tool by Eom Soon-Ja(1998) and they were modified for liver cirrhosis patients. The data were analyzed by t-test, Chi-square test, Pearson correlation coefficients using SAS program. The results of this study were as follows. The experimental group which had received structured information provided showed greater increased knowledge of liver cirrhosis(P=.001). The experimental group which had received the structured information provided indicated increased self-care performance rate, especially after information about diet(P=.001), activity and bed rest(P=.001), drug therapy and visiting the hospital(P=.001), prevention of a complication and observation(P=.001). In conclusion, structured information provided showed increased in the degree of knowledge and self-care behavior, so information showing is an effective nursing intervention. It is much needed to employ information showing for chronic patients.