• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.562-570
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• 2019

The purpose of this study was to identify the factors influencing the quality of sleep in breast cancer patients receiving chemotherapy in the outpatient settings. The data were collected from 203 patients with breast cancer receiving chemotherapy in the outpatient settings at one tertiary hospital in B City. Stress, fatigue and depression were negatively correlated with quality of sleep (r=-.369, p=.001; r=-.565, p=.001; r=-.526, p=.001, respectively). Fatigue(${\beta}=-.387$, p<.001) was one of the biggest impact factors on quality of sleep which explained 31.6% of the variance of the sleep quality, followed by the experience of sleep disturbances prior to the diagnosis of breast cancer(${\beta}=-.178$, p<.002) and depression(${\beta}=-.231$, p<.004). In total, all of the antecedent variables explained significantly 37.4% of the variance of the sleep quality. Thus, in order to improve the quality of sleep, integrative nursing interventions need to be developed to reduce fatigue and depression among them, including an proactive system to screen out the patients with the experience of sleep disturbances prior to the diagnosis with breast cancer and to provide adequate pharmacological and/or non-pharmacological sleep interventions prior to the chemotherapy.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.755-765
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• 1999

Most people experience fatigue at some point in their lives, and they say the word ‘fatigue’ in their ordinary conversational speech. The ordinary word is used as a military or engineering term and has been studied in various different disciplines, such as ergonomics, physiology, psychology, medicine, and nursing. In spite of its widespread uses, however, fatigue has not been well defined. The term of fatigue Is thus often used with different meanings and is applied in diverse contexts that had led to a confusion of ideas. In people with cancer, fatigue is reported as a major distress. Despite the importance of fatigue in cancer patients, the phenomena of fatigue is poorly understood. Therefore, the purpose of the present study is to analyze the concept of fatigue in people with cancer. The process for the concept analysis was guided by Walker and Avant's conceptual analysis methodology. The identified attributes of fatigue in the present study were subjective feeling, lack of energy, sustenance, and multidimensions. The antecedents were cancer treatment and economic status. The consequences were decreased daily, vocational, leisure, and social activities, uncertainty, and difficulties in adjustment. Symptoms (pain, anorexia, and insomnia) and emotional disturbance were not clear whether they are antecedents or consequences. However, they are related with cancer related fatigue. Even though still in the beginning stage, instruments measuring cancer related fatigue have been developed by some nursing investigators.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.39 no.12
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• pp.1800-1806
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• 2010

This study was conducted to evaluate the efficacy and safety of vanadium water (VW) on cancer-related fatigue of non-advanced cancer patients. For the experimental group administration, participants consumed three 500 mL/bottle bottles of Jeju Island's VW, which contained 15~20 ppb of vanadium, three times a day (morning, afternoon, evening) for 4 weeks (28 days) without any additional treatments for fatigue improvement. The control group participants consumed three 500 mL/bottle bottles of ordinary water (0 ppb of vanadium) three times a day for the same period of time without any additional treatments for fatigue improvement. After 4 weeks of VW consumption, total score of Revised Piper Fatigue Scale (RPFS) was reduced 30% compared to the basal score after Fisher's Exact Test which resulted in a statistical borderline significance (p=0.0799) and result of t-test of comparison between two groups' RPFS total score and fatigue cognitive/mood changes resulted in a statistical significance (p=0.0112). In detail, only 36.4% of control group (N=11) showed improvement while 77.8% of treatment group (N=9) showed fatigue improvement. No other lab measures, including thyroid hormone level indicated any significant differences between two groups. In conclusion, daily consumption of 1.5 L of vanadium water for 4 weeks showed improvement of non-advanced cancer patients' fatigue.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.304-314
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• 2016

This study was conducted to understand the meaning and nature of the compassion fatigue experiences among nurses working in oncology wards. The participants in this study were 11 nurses who worked for at least 6 months in oncology wards. The data were collected using in-depth interviews and analyzed using the phenomenological method by Giorgi. Six categories of the meaning of compassion fatigue were derived as follows; physically difficulty, emotion is control of patient's condition, collapsing in front of cancer patients, reminding of patient-related memory, finding a changed attitude, and searching for how to recover.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Fundamentals of Nursing
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.16-26
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• 2002

Purpose: This study was done to investigate the effect of foot reflexology on vital signs, general fatigue, mood and foot fatigue in cancer patients receiving chemotherapy. Method: Data were collected from a convenience sample of 11 patients who were admitted at S and E University Hospital. Changes in systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure(DBP), pulse rate(PR), general fatigue, mood status, and foot fatigue between pre and post foot reflexology were analyzed using Wilcoxon signed rank test and Friedman test at 0.05 level of significance. Results: There were significant differences in the SBP(p= .009), DBP(p=.014), PR(p=.015), general fatigue (p=.015) mood status(p=.007), and foot fatigue(p= .007) between pre and post foot reflexology. Conclusion: Foot reflexology can improve vital signs, general/foot fatigue and mood status, therefore we recommend to use foot reflexology as an effective nursing intervention in cancer patients receiving chemotherapy.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.562-569
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• 2003

Purpose: The purpose of this longitudinal prospective study was to assess changes in fatigue and quality of life for a 6-week course of radiotherapy. Method: A descriptive and longitudinal design was used to this study. Twenty-three subjects receiving radiotherapy from a radiotherapy clinic of a general hospital completed the questionnaires. Fatigue was measured using Lee's scale(1999) and quality of life using Yang's scale(2002) weekly for 6 weeks. Result: Fatigue significantly increased(F=6.043, p=.000), and quality of life significantly decreased (F=3.938, p=.003) and physical symptoms also significantly increased(F=2.432, p=.039) during a 6-week radiotherapy. Multiple regression analysis revealed that fatigue at the first week and physical symptoms at the 6th week were the significant affecting variables(60.1% of the variance) on fatigue. And 63.2% of the variance in quality of life was explained by quality of life and fatigue at the first week and body weight change for 6 weeks radiotherapy. Conclusion: Based on these results, the fatigue and quality of life at the beginning time of radiotherapy have a lasting impact throughout the course of treatment. It suggests that nurses provide patients with information about the occurrence of fatigue during radiotherapy and the practical methods of intervening physical symptoms.

• Korean Journal of Adult Nursing
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.617-627
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• 2003

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate fatigue and its related factors in cancer patients receiving radiotherapy. Method: The subjects of this study consisted of 98 patients receiving radiotherapy. Subjects were recruited from C University Hospital radiation oncology unit located in Gwangju from March to May, 2001. Questionnaire and medical records were used for data collection. The obtained data was analyzed using SAS program that included descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA, Post-hoc test(Fisher's LSD) and Pearson's correlation coefficients. Result: The fatigue perceived by the subjects was middle level ($5.59{\pm}1.59$) and 72.4% of them reported greater than 5 points. The subjects in no religion, low income, and spouse caregiver groups experienced the higher fatigue than another groups, respectively. The subjects in nasopharyngeal cancer, head & neck radiation site, and analgesics medication groups did, experience fatigue as well. The fatigue not only positively correlated with symptom distress, disruption of usual activity, sleep dissatisfaction, and mood state, but also negatively with less family support. Conclusion: Cancer patients receiving radiotherapy experience the middle level of fatigue and it correlates with the multi-dimensional factors. However, further research is needed to identify the changes in fatigue over the radiotherapy period through longitudinal design and to develop nursing intervention for fatigue decrease.

• Child Health Nursing Research
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.66-72
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• 2010

Purpose: This study was done to identify factors associated with fatigue in pediatric patients with cancer in order to develop nursing interventions for this population. Methods: The participants were 95 pediatric cancer patients admitted to a university medical center in Seoul, Korea, and 95 parents. The $PedsQL^{TM}$, Multidimensional Fatigue Scale developed by Varni (2002) was used to measure fatigue. Data were analyzed with the SAS program and t-test, analysis of variance (ANOVA), Pearson correlation coefficients, and multiple regression were used to identify the association of factors with fatigue. Results: The mean score for fatigue was 30.42 in the pediatric cancer patients and 34.77 in the parents. Fatigue was higher in patients living with a single parent, in patients whose father had a lower education and those patients with a fever. Pain, frequency and intensity of nausea and vomiting, depression, anxiety, and disruption of usual activity were positively associated with fatigue. The predictive factors for fatigue were disruption of usual activity, depression and living with or without parents. Conclusion: Pediatric patients with cancer experienced fatigue during their diagnosis and treatment. Of the multiple factors associated with fatigue, the association between disruption of usual activity and fatigue was the highest indicating a need to be concerned with this factor when providing interventions to alleviate fatigue.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.19 no.11
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• pp.370-379
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• 2018

This study was conducted 1) to investigate the effects of treatment and other factors on the quality of life of thyroid cancer surgical patients and 2) to provide fundamental data for development of an intervention and symptom management program to improve the quality of life of those patients. A total of 76 patients who were diagnosed with thyroid cancer and underwent thyroidectomy from July 2013 to December 2014 participated in this study. To investigate the factors affecting quality of life, a t-test and ANOVA analyses were conducted, after which multiple regression analysis was performed. The results were statistically significant between preoperative and one month after surgery of sex, cancer history, fatigue, and quality of life until 3 months after surgery of stage, cancer history, anxiety, and pain. Multiple regression analysis showed that the most influential factors affecting the quality of life were depression and fatigue at one month prior to and after surgery and anxiety at three months after surgery, while no factors were found to be influential at six months after surgery. Overall, the results of this study suggested that it is imperative to manage depression and fatigue one month prior to and after surgery to reduce the physical and psychological pain experienced by thyroid cancer patients. Moreover, three months after the surgery, anxiety should be closely monitored and controlled to improve the quality of life of the patients. This approach is expected to reduce the burden on the health care system and social costs, which will positively affect public health.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.897-905
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• 2002

The purpose of this study was to discuss and address the state of the knowledge development and the nature of knowledge regarding fatigue. Method: This study analyzed the 63 fatigue related articles published from 1990 to 2001. The analysis schema was 'Alternative linkages among philosophy, theory, and method for nursing science' (Kim, 1993). Result: The 63 articles had been studied only within 5 types among all 96 types of linkages. Most of the articles (59 among 63 articles) had been studied within scientific realism and deductive logic. Fifty-three articles among 59 articles were the type of explanatory and predictive theory, grasping reality by the etic method on the controlled setting. Conclusion: This study suggests more development of knowledge regarding fatigue with various logics, especially with discovery logic such as inductive and retroductive or methods in multiple designs on various subjects under various philosophy needed for nursing practice.