Abstract

PURPOSE
The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship among loneliness, life satisfaction, social support and perceived health status, and further to identify factors affecting loneliness among hospitalized patients with pneumoconiosis.
METHODS
This study was a cross-sectional descriptive survey. A sample of 205 hospitalized patients with pneumoconiosis was recruited from August 10 to 27, 2011. The data were collected using structured questionnaire and were analyzed with SPSS/WIN 17.0 program.
RESULTS
The mean score of loneliness was very high (46.5). The levels of loneliness depended on several factors including the duration of coalworker caregiver, personality, exercise, hobbies and reported complications. The reported loneliness was significantly correlated with life satisfaction (r=-.204, p=.003). family support (r=-.220, p=.002), professional medical team support (r=-.303, p<.001) and perceived health status (r=-.175, p=.012). The influential factors affecting loneliness were professional medical team support, life satisfaction, and personality, perceived health status, complication and family support, which explained about 21.8% of the variance.
CONCLUSION
The results of this study indicate that nursing intervention is needed to reduce loneliness, and to improve the perceived health status, social support and life satisfaction in the hospitalized patient with pneumoconiosis. These results can provide for evidence of nursing intervention to facilitate reduction of loneliness.