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.

The major purpose of this study was to evaluate the asthma related quality of life in relation to asthma control/severity, multidimensional symptom experience (frequency, intensity distress), and socioeconomic status in adults with asthma. Data was collected by mailed-survey to 384 people with asthma and 172 responded. The mean of the respondents age was 49.6 yrs. The mean of the length of time they were diagnosed as having asthma was 21 yrs. Asthma was well controlled in this sample. The findings revealed that overall asthma related quality of life were relatively good in this sample. In terms of symptom experience, shortness of breath was identified as the most frequent, severe, and distressful of the four asthma symptoms. The score for symptom distress was significantly lower than the score for the frequency and severity across all asthma symptoms. The results indicate that symptoms occurred frequently and intensely, but they were not always distressing to the subjects. Among the three symptom dimensions, distress was the best predictor for asthma related quality of life measured by LWAQ. Results of Multiple regression analysis indicated that asthma severity, symptom distress, and socioeconomic status influenced the quality of life(R2=.66, F (3,68)=44.37, P=.000). Findings highlight the importance of symptom distress with respect to the quality of life of people with asthma.