PURPOSE: The purpose of this study is to determine the infertility stress, marital intimacy, and marital satisfaction of women under infertility treatment, and to reveal associated factors of marital satisfaction. METHODS: As a descriptive correlation study, data was collected from 174 women under infertility treatment. Data was analysed using χ2-test, t-test, ANOVA, pearson's correlation coefficients, and stepwise multiple regression. RESULTS: Infertility stress, marital intimacy, and marital satisfaction averaged 3.20±.3 (range of scale 1~5), 3.53±.5, and 3.74±.6, respectively. The marital satisfaction varied with a statistical significance by the spouse's attitude about infertility treatment and financial burden on infertility treatments. Marital satisfaction had a positive correlation with infertility stress (r=.526, p<.001) and marital intimacy (r=.637, p<.001). We also identified the marital intimacy as the most influencing factor and the infertility stress as the second most influencing factor on the infertile women's marital satisfaction. CONCLUSION: This research provided a valuable opportunity to recognize infertility as a marital, family, and societal problem, which calls for relational support as well as personal support. The infertility experts need to recognize both the personal and relational aspects of the infertility problem, and make various efforts to promote the reproductive health of the infertile patients.
Female ; Humans ; Infertility* ; Reproductive Health ; Statistics as Topic

Regardless of improvement in cure of Rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS), the results in treatment of advanced stage of RMS in children are still dismal. Recently, high-dose chemotherapy followed by autologous peripheral blood stem cell transplantation (HDC/APBSCT) has been tried to manage the advanced high-risk RMS patients. We investigated the effectiveness of HDC/APBSCT by reviewing the clinical records of high-risk pediatric RMS patients in single institute database. Over twenty years, 37 patients were diagnosed as RMS with high-risk at the time of first diagnosis. These patients were classified as two groups according to treatment method. The first group was HDC/APBSCT and the other was conventional multi-agent chemotherapy group. Differences of clinical results between the two groups were analyzed. The median age of patients was 5 yr, ranging from 6 months to 15 yr. The 5-yr event free survival rate (EFS) of all patients was 24.8% +/- 4.8%. HDC/APBSCT group and conventional multi-agent chemotherapy group were 41.3% +/- 17.8% and 16.7% +/- 7.6% for 5-yr EFS, respectively (P = 0.023). There was a significant difference in the result of HDC/APBSCT between complete remission or very good partial response group and poor response group (50% +/- 20.4% vs 37.5% +/- 28.6%, P = 0.018). HDC/APBSCT can be a promising treatment modality in high-risk RMS patients.
Adolescent ; Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols/*therapeutic use ; Carboplatin/administration & dosage ; Child ; Child, Preschool ; Disease-Free Survival ; Etoposide/administration & dosage ; Female ; Humans ; Ifosfamide/administration & dosage ; Infant ; Male ; *Peripheral Blood Stem Cell Transplantation ; Retrospective Studies ; Rhabdomyosarcoma/*drug therapy/mortality/pathology ; Survival Rate ; Transplantation, Autologous ; Treatment Outcome

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of an Oriental self-help group program on living-alone elders in rural areas. METHOD: A one-group pretest-post test design was used. The subjects of the experimental group participated in the oriental self-help program, health education, feet bathing in hot water, cupping therapy, and foot-reflexology. The obtained data were analyzed using the Wilcoxon signed rank test and Pearson correlation coefficients of SPSS. RESULTS: 1) The level of blood triglyceride, SGOT and glucose decreased significantly in the experimental group compared to the control group. 2) The scores of depression and stress decreased significantly in the experimental group compared to the control group. 3) The score of Yangsaeng increased significantly in the experimental group compared to the control group. 4) Depression was higher when the score of stress was high, and the score of depression and stress were lower when the score of Yangsaeng was high. CONCLUSION: Considering the results of this research, the program is effective in improving physiological indexes partially, emotional indexes and Yangsaeng. Therefore this program can be implemented as a community-based self-help group program for living-alone elders in rural areas.
Aspartate Aminotransferases ; Baths ; Depression ; Foot ; Glucose ; Health Education ; Health Promotion ; Self-Help Groups* ; Triglycerides ; Water

BACKBROUND: The over-preparation of blood for elective surgery causes some problems such as returning of blood, inefficient task and loss of reagent. Even though "Type & Screen" method helps solve such problems, we need to make a great effort to inform clinician of it. In Severance hospital, 1986 MSBOS had been established for the first time and revised in 1991. Recently, as various side effects of transfusion have been known and operation technique developed, blood usage is being decreased. Therefore, we try to revise maximal surgical blood order schedule(MSBOS) investigating RBC utilization for elective surgery in Severance hospital, 1999. METHODS: We investigated RBC utilization for elective surgery of the adult patient and, pre-op hemoglobin level, number of transfused patients, mean blood amount of transfused patients and mean blood amount of all operated patient referring to anesthesiologic record and blood delivery sheet in Severance hospital during 6 months from January through June 1999. RESULTS: The blood utilization of the period has been significantly decreased, compared with the previous reports(Korean J Blood Transfusion 1991;2:183-90) except in cardiovascular surgery. CONCLUSIONS: We could revise the guidelines for ordering blood on the basis of above results. Afterthis, MSBOS should be reestablished at regular intervals to improve blood utility.
Adult ; Blood Transfusion ; Humans

Emphasis on healthcare during the 1990s has been to provide both optimal wellness and function with quality in a cost-effective manner. Critical Pathway was developed to meet the need to guide clients along the continuum of care and to achieve continuity of care. The purpose of this study was to develop on evaluating model of Critical Pathway practices. The topics which developed into Critical Pathway were normal delivery, repairment of cataract, cesarean section delivery, pediatric tonsillectomy and hemorrhoidectomy. The main goals set by teams were educations, improvement of process and quality of care, customer satisfaction and financial achievements. To evaluate the performace of Critical Pathway in clinical process, 13 kinds of perspective key performance indicators were selected by using Balanced Scorecard(BSC) method. The analysis method was Data Mining. Cesarean section discharge abstract data were reviewed for guidelines of model development and classification of control groups. Five kinds of Critical Pathway were developed by multidisciplinary participation by personnels of related departments, and pilot-test was performed. All the Critical Pathway was applied as standard protocols in patient s care since November, 1999. Length of stay was significantly shortened and increased patient s satisfaction in 4 case groups except pediatric tonsillectomy group. Hospital and medication cost of each patient remarkably decreased in all 5 case groups. And the improvement of process and quality of care was appeared during the Critical Pathway implementation period. These results show that new evaluation model of Critical Pathway in medical practice was an effective.
Cataract ; Cesarean Section ; Classification ; Continuity of Patient Care ; Critical Pathways* ; Data Mining ; Delivery of Health Care ; Female ; Hemorrhoidectomy ; Humans ; Length of Stay ; Pregnancy ; Tonsillectomy

OBJECTIVES: To develop a Korean version of VSSS-82 for measuring the multi-dimensional satisfaction with community-based mental health services in psychiatric patients and to investigate both the reliability and validity of the Korean version. METHODS: The VSSS-82 English version was translated and back-translated with some modification. Data from 68 psychosis patients using community-based mental health services in three Community Mental Health Centers (CMHCs) was collected through a personal interview survey regarding the satisfaction and suitability of service. Variability of satisfaction and internal consistency, discriminant validity, and concurrent validity of the VSSS-82 Korean version were evaluated. RESULTS: A higher number of dissatisfied subjects and significant pairwise differences for the dimensions were found. The Crohnbach's alpha coefficient, a measure of internal consistency, ranged from 0.56 (overall satisfaction) to 0.90 (skills and behavior) and significant differences in satisfaction was found in patients by the self-rated suitability of service. CONCLUSIONS: The VSSS-82 Korean version is a reliable and valid instrument for measuring multi-dimensional satisfaction with community-based mental health service.
Community Mental Health Centers ; Community Mental Health Services ; Humans ; Mental Health Services* ; Mental Health* ; Personal Satisfaction ; Psychotic Disorders ; Questionnaires ; Reproducibility of Results*

No abstract available.
Membranes* ; Pregnancy* ; Rupture*

PURPOSE: The aim was to investigate the effect of implant thread designs on the stress dissipation of the implant. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The threads evaluated in this study included the V-shaped, buttress, reverse buttress, and square-shaped threads, which were of the same size (depth). Building four different implant/bone complexes each consisting of an implant with one of the 4 different threads on its cylindrical body (4.1 mm x 10 mm), a force of 100 N was applied onto the top of implant abutment at 30degrees with the implant axis. In order to simulate different osseointegration stages at the implant/bone interfaces, a nonlinear contact condition was used to simulate immature osseointegration and a bonding condition for mature osseointegration states. RESULTS: Stress distribution pattern around the implant differed depending on the osseointegration states. Stress levels as well as the differences in the stress between the analysis models (with different threads) were higher in the case of the immature osseointegration state. Both the stress levels and the differences between analysis models became lower at the completely osseointegrated state. Stress dissipation characteristics of the V-shape thread was in the middle of the four threads in both the immature and mature states of osseointegration. These results indicated that implant thread design may have biomechanical impact on the implant bed bone until the osseointegration process has been finished. CONCLUSION: The stress dissipation characteristics of V-shape thread was in the middle of the four threads in both the immature and mature states of osseointegration.
Axis, Cervical Vertebra ; Finite Element Analysis ; Osseointegration

PURPOSE: This study has tried to find out the effects of music therapy on anxiety of surgery patients during operation under regional anesthesia. In order to find out the effects, this research design was used nonequivalent control group non-synchronized design. METHOD: The subjects were the sixty inpatients under regional anesthesia in K hospital. They were assigned to two groups, thirty to the experimental group and thirty to control group. The data were collected using the Visual Analogue Scale(VAS) for State Anxiety and vital sign. The Experimental group received favorite music of the 4 different genre. The control group were inserted ear plug during operation. Data were analyzed by chi-square-test, T-test, ANOVA and Repeated Measured ANOVA of the SPSS WIN (12.0) version program. RESULTS: 1) Hypothesis 1: The hypothesis "that the figure for state anxiety of the experimental group provided with music therapy would be lower than that of the control group" was confirmed(F=0.27, P=0.01). 2) Hypothesis 2 : Three subordinating hypotheses were established in order to verify the hypothesis "that the figures for vital sings of the experimental group provided with such as music therapy would be lower than those of the control group." were rejected. CONCLUSION: Music therapy can be regarded as an effective nursing intervention that relieves operative anxiety of surgical patients under regional anesthesia.
Anesthesia, Conduction ; Anxiety* ; Ear ; Humans ; Inpatients ; Music Therapy* ; Music* ; Nursing ; Research Design ; Vital Signs*

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to provide a basis for non-humidified low flow oxygen by nasal cannula and to provide a guide for consistent care in nursing practice. METHODS: A methodological study on the development of guidelines with experts' opinions on collected items, framing PICO questions, evaluating and synthesizing texts which were searched with the key words (low flow oxygen, nasal cannula, humidification of oxygen, guideline) from web search engines. RESULTS: Of the 45 researched texts on the web, 9 texts relevant to the theme were synthesized and evaluated. All patients with humidified or non-humidified oxygen therapy reported that they had no discomfort. CONCLUSION: The results indicate that there are no tangible grounds for patients' perceived differences between the humidified and non-humidified oxygen under 4L/min supplied by nasal cannula. with oxygen. Therefore, non-humidification oxygen therapy is strongly advised when suppling under 4L/min oxygen by nasal cannula (recommended grade A).
Catheters ; Humans ; Oxygen