스트레스와 면역반응에 대한 국내 논문분석

Analysis of the Researches on Stress and Immune Responses

This study was aimed to analyze the variables measuring stress and immune responses, to identify the relationship between stress and immune responses, and to find out the effect of nursing interventions associated with stress and immune responses by reviewing thirty-four published articles since 1970 in Korea. The articles were selected in the field of nursing, stress management, and masters or doctoral dissertations and limited to human subject. Among these, the thirty-one articles were published since 1996 and mainly distributed in nursing (44.1%) and medicine(44.1%). The prevailing research design was nonequivalent control pre-post experimental design(41.1%). The research subjects were 55.9% for patients and 44.1% for healthy general persons including 20.6% of university students. To evaluate stress, both physiologic and psychosocial measures were adapted together in 35.3% of the articles. The most frequent two variables measuring stress and immune response were cortisol level(15.9%) and number or activity of natural killer cell(25.9%). The relation between stress and immune responses was positive in 4 articles, negative in 9 cases, and none in 12 cases. Decreased stress and enhanced immune function have been found when massage, abdominal breathing, exercise, relaxation, and touch were provided as nursing interventions. The articles to investigate the relationship between stress and immune function were limited and the tested variables were diverse. Also there was no consistent evidence to correlate the stress and immune function at present. Further studies are needed to construct a valid research design and to investigate the relationship between stress and immune responses. Nursing interventions to decrease stress should be developed to result in the increased immune function and the effect of these interventions would be verified.