Many patients of acute myocardial infarction showed delay time before seeking treatment although they needed immediate thrombolytic therapy once they perceived their symptoms. The objectives of this study were to identify the relationship between clinical symptoms and the delay, and to find the time spent before seeking the treatment. This study was a retrospective research. The delay time for the treatment consisted of the length of delay from symptom onset to patients' decision (T1), from patients' decision making to finding transportation (T2), and from taking transportation to the first hospital arrival(T3). The subjects were 89 patients who were admitted in the ICU and Cardiac Ward at Chonnam University Hospital with the first attack of acute myocardial infarction. The data was collected for three months from March 1st to May 31st of 1998 through questionnaires and reviewing patients' charts: The chart information was suppled by two nurses working at the ICU and Cardiac Ward. The data was analyzed by using frequency, mean and ANOVA through the SAS program. The results of study summarized as follows: 1. Sixty two patients (69.7%) were male and twenty seven patients (30.3%) were female, the ratio of male to female was 2.3 : 1. 2. In daily life, the 70.8% of the patients felt chest pain and discomfort fatigue in 67.4%, dyspnea in 57.3%, and pain in arm, neck, and jaw in 52.8%. During the attack, 97.8% of the patients felt chest pain and discomfort dyspnea in 82.1%, pain in arm, neck, jaw in 67.4% and perspiration in 51.7%. 3. The length of time a patient spent seeking time for treatment (T1+T2+T3) was 94.6 minutes, in which the time for patients' decision making for treatment (T1) was 70.3 minutes, time for finding transportation (T2) was 8.2 minutes, and time for the transportation of the patient to the first hospital (T3) was 16.1 minutes. Time for patients' decision making to go to a hospital(T1) was 74.2% of the total time sought for treatment.
The Profile of Mood States (POMS) is the most widely used self-report instrument for the measurement of affect or mood in clinical and nonclinical populations. This paper reports on the translation and testing of a Korean version of the POMS. The translation involved three steps: translation, checking agreement, and panel discussions to arrive at consensus. Then, the Korean version of the POMS was tested with a sample of 47 healthy Koreans who lived in the U.S.: they completed the instrument in the morning, at the beginning of work and in the evening, at the end of work. Internal consistencies for the total scale and subscales were high(alphas= .93 and .94). Face and content validity and the cultural relevance of the Korean version of the POMS were tested through review by five bilingual Korean nursing scholars who were familiar with Korean version of the POMS was then compared with Haeok Fatigue Behavior Check-list and demonstrating significant concurrent validity (r= .87, p<.001). Construct validity was established by demonstrating significant differences between the scores on the scores on the Fatigue and Vigor subscales (p< .001) at the beginning work and at the end of work.