• Korean Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.639-648
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• 2008

This study is to examine the meaning of death, the level of death anxiety, and the aspect of death anxiety that the aged have. For this, a quantitative research subjecting 532 of the aged living in local area, Jeollabuk-do was carried out. And among those 532 questionnaires, 10 were subjected for depth interview. The following is a summary of the result from this study. First, the meaning of death for the aged is classified into three classes as positive, neutral and negative meaning. Among these, there were far greater numbers of the aged who put neutral or negative meanings on their death than the positive one. Second, death anxiety of the aged are divided into three factors: 'annihilation anxiety', 'process anxiety', and 'afterdeath anxiety'. The factor that involves death anxiety the most was process anxiety, then afterdeath anxiety, and annihilation anxiety, in the order. Third, as a result of classifying the feature of death anxiety in the aged into the symptoms of death anxiety and the motive of recognizing death anxiety. Death anxiety is classified into the people with symptoms and those without symptoms, and those with certain symptoms are classified into the physical symptoms and the mental symptoms. The motive of recognizing death anxiety appeared when the individual is aged, experiences the death of other people, suffers physical pains, and when there is a mental loneliness.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.353-363
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• 1997

With the occurrence of cancer, most cancer patients experience various emotional changes such as anxiety, depression, and emotional shock. Especially in our country, cancer has been recognized as an incurable disease resulting in death. The number of cancer patients increases daily. But as the survival rate of cancer patients is also increasing, there is a need to find the better methods of nursing care for cancer patients. The purposes of this paper are as follows : 1) To understand family support and hope and quality of life for the cancer patient both during hospitalization and at home. 2) To determine the relationship between family support, hope and quality of life. To examine the problems. we used a questionnaire and obtained data form the records of 45 home care and 90 hospitalized (in 3 university hospitals) patients in Taegu area from the period of June 15 to August 15, 1996. SPSS /PC was used for the data analysis and the statistical methods used were the T-test and ANOVA. The results of this paper are as follows : 1) In the aspect of family support, there is no difference between hospitalized and home care cancer patients(t=1.63, P>0.01). 2) In the aspect of hope, hospitalized cancer patients have a higher score than home care cancer patients(t=3.08, P>0.01). 3) In the aspect of quality of life, hospitalized cancer patients have a higher score than home care patients(t=2.96, P<.01). 4) There is a correlation between quality of life and hope with a correlation coefficient r=0.5195 and P=0.000. In addition, the correlation coefficient between quality of life and family support is 4179 with P=0.000. 5) The family support of the cancer patient is influenced by sex(F=9.1863, P<0.01), education(F=4.3641, P<0.01) and the level of life (F=5.5002, P<0.01), 6) The hope of cancer patients is influenced by the number of hospitalizations(F=3.6413, P<.05), education(F=6.0113, P<.01). and the level of life(F=5.0649, P<.01). 7) The quality of life of cancer patients is influenced by the number of hospitalization(F=5.1167, P<0.05), education(F=3.1590, P<0.01) and the level of life(F=5.6942, P<0.01).

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.18-27
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• 2000

Purpose : This study aims to find out the quality of life of patients admitted to the hospice unit at Kangnam St. Mary's Hospital, at admission and after weeks hospice service and to assess the effects of hospice service on the quality of life of terminal cancer patients. Methods : This study subjects were 100 patients admitted to the hospice unit at Kangnam St. Mary's Hospital, Catholic University between October 1999 and March 2000, and their primary caregivers. Quality of life data were collected using a questionnaire revised by the authors and were analyzed by means of repeated measures ANOVA. Results : 1) Patient's quality of life as perceived by the primary caregiver was significantly improved and the mean score was 3.31, 3.68, 3.56, 3.73, 3.75 at admission and week 1, 2, 3, 4. With the detailed item analysis, the following items were shown to be significantly improved: "clean bodies"(F=6.50, P=0.0001) "pain control"(F=18.01, P=0.0001) constipate"(F=2.96, P=0.0237) "sleep"(F=3.99, P=0.0048) "nausea/vomiting"(F=4.50, P=0.0022) "medical team's comfortable care" (F=3.95, P=0.0051) "family's care"(F=2.76, P=0.0317) "anxiety" (F=3.14, P=0.0177) "comfort"(F=3.63, P=0.0085) "treat with dignity"(F=3.32, P=0.0136). The item of "death is not the end of life rather the beginning" was significantly decreased(F=2.54, P=0.0450). 2) Patient's quality of life as perceived by the patient showed an improvement but statistically insignificant and the mean score was 3.63 and 3.83 at admission and week 1. With the detailed item analysis, the item of "pain control" was shown to be significantly improved(F=9.19, P=0.0251). 3) The quality of score in the last week of life of patient were 3.48, 3.51, 3.44, 3.46, 3.50, respectively, from 5 week prior to 1 week prior to death and these changes were insignificant. Conclusion : The findings of this study showed a positive effect of hospice service on quality of life of the terminal cancer patients admitted to the hospice unit. To improve the quality of life, we need first of all to develop hospice interventions with a particular emphasis on the spiritual aspect of patient. Secondly, measurement instruments need to be developed to collect the quality of life of the hospice patients who become weakened especially in the last weeks of their life and with this effort more representative data of hospice patients may be collected.