• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.23-35
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• 1999

Purpose : The hospice movement began about 30 years ago in Korea. However, basic studies have seldom been conducted about the general public's knowledge concerning hospice care and their needs for it. The purpose of this study was to investigate the general public's knowledge of and attitude toward hospice, and their needs for hospice care, and to analyze the needs for hospice care in relation to their knowledge and attitude in residents from a specific community. Methods : The survey was conducted with 924 people randomly selected from a district in Seoul. The data were collected through a self-reporting questionnaire constructed by the authors. With 30 items given in the questionnaire, the level of hospice needs showed Cronbach's alpha .89 in a pilot study and .92 in this study and the items were classified into four areas by a factor analysis. The data collected were analyzed by means of t-test and ANOVA. Results : 1) The average age of the respondents was 38. The majority of the respondents were well-educated. 2) Regarding awareness of hospice care, 54%(501 people) indicated they have heard of hospice. About 74% thought that people should be able to prepare for death in advance. About 83% wanted to be informed when they have life threatening illnesses such as terminal cancer. Also, about 63% responded that patients with terminal diseases should be provided with physical, spiritual, and psychological care for minimizing pain and peaceful death. Regarding the attitude toward hospice care, 74% responded that they would use hospice care if needed. The number of the respondents who preferred home visitation by the hospice team to care for the terminally ill ranked first with 34%. Concerning needs for hospice care : 1) By needs area, physical need showed highest mean(M=4.37), followed by social need(M=3.96), emotional need(M=3.87), and the spiritual need(M=3.79). The overall need level showed the mean value of 4.00 which reflects a considerable need for hospice care. 2) By demographic characteristics, people age over 50, the married, and the unemployed indicated higher level of needs for hospice care. Women showed higher level of needs than did men, and Catholics demonstrated higher level of needs than believers of other religion(P<0.0001). 3) As for the knowledge of and attitude toward hospice rare, the level of hospice care needs was significantly higher in the following groups: those who have heard of hospice, those who are aware of death preparation, those who want information on terminal diseases, those who want to use every method to sustain life, and those who are aware of hospice needs(P<0.001). Conclusion : It is assumed that the findings of this study on the knowledge, attitude, and needs for hospice care in the public can contribute to planning a successful hospice care program. Furthermore, the findings of this study will serve as useful data for the promotion of home hospice care to improve the quality of life of community residents, and contribute to the development of hospice care as a whole.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.24 no.2 s.34
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• pp.232-242
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• 1991

To determine the incidence rate of child battering and related factors, a questionnaire survey was Conducted on 1,255 children in 4th and 5th grades of two elementary schools (one in the upper economic class area with 519 students and the other in the lower economic class area with 504 students) in Taegu and two schools in rural areas of Kyungpook province (120 and 112 students, respectively) from 1st May to 10th May 1990. Total number of children who were battered during one-month period (1-30 April 1990) prior to the survey was 918 (73.1%). Among the battered children 87 (6.9%) were severely battered (twice or more in a month by kicking or more severe method) and 831 children (66.2%) were moderately battered (all other battering than severe battering). The percentage of battered children and degree of battering were not significantly different between two schools in Taegu and between urban and rural areas. Common reasons for battering were disobediance (61.9%), making troubles (34.9%), and poor school performance (33.3%). However, 16.1% of severely battered children responded that the perpetrators battered them to wreak their anger and 5.7% of them did not know the reason why they were battered. A majority of the battered children (65%) regretted their fault after being battered but 20.7% of the severely battered children wanted to run away and 9.2% of them had an urge to commit suicide. While most of the physical injuries due to battering were minor as bruise (52.7%) but some of them were severe, e.g., bone fracture (2.5%), skin laceration (1.5%), and loss of consciousness. (0.2%). The common psycho-behavioral complaints of the severely battered children were unwillingness to study (31%), unwillingness to live (17.2%), and reluctance to go home (13.8%). The incidence rate of severe battering was significantly higher (p=0.018) among the children living in a quarter attached to a store (14.0%) than the children living in an apartment (6.6%) and individual house (6.2%). The incidence rate of severe battering was higher among children living in a rental house (8.4%) than children living in their own house 6.3%) (p=0.005). The children of father only working (5.1%) and mother only working (4.5%) had a lower incidence rate of severe battering than the children of both parents working (9.1%) and both parents unemployed (20.7%) (p=0.006). More children were battered when there was a sick family member (80.8%) compared with the children without a sick family member (71.4%) (p=0.001). The incidence rates of severe and moderate battering increased as the frequency of quarreling between mother and father increased (P=0.000). The percentage of unbattered children was higher among children whose father's occupation was professional (39.4%) than that of the total study subjects (26.9%) (p<0.001).