The purpose of this study was to discover practical health problems which hemodialysis clients experienced so as to present basic data for development of a health assessment tool. The research subjects were 70 clients receiving hemodialysis in Seoul and Inchon from Mar. 1996 to Sep. 1996. Data were collected by researcher's informal indepth interview and nurses' open ended question. Content analysis was applied to collect similar contents and common experiences in order to derivate concepts and categories for better understanding of hemodialysis clients' experiences. As a result, 9 categories derivated to identify the health problems of clients receiving hemodialysis were as follows: 1) They experienced 'the decreased digestive function' which contained the changed appetite, nausea, vomiting, constipation and diarrhea. 2) They experienced 'the decreased respiratory and circulatory function' which contained dyspnea, changed blood pressure, tingling sensation and the fear of aggrevated vascular condition. 3) They experienced 'the aggrevated oral condition' which contained dry mouth and destruction of teeth and their soft tissue. 4) They experienced 'the decreased sensory function' which contained visual disturbances, sensation difficulty, and hearing loss. 5) They experienced 'the aggrevated skin condition' which contained dark brown skin color, dry skin (and hyperpigmentatic freckle, seborrheric kera-tosis, scale), itching sense, and alopethia. 6) They experienced 'the decreased urinary reproductive function' which contained anuria or oliguria, dysmenorrhea, sterility and decreased libido. 7) They experienced 'the restricted activity' which contained decreased activity, muscle cramp and stiffness of joint. 8) They experienced 'the changed mental status' which contained memory disturbance, decreased cognition, disorientation, neurosis and psychosis. 9) They experienced 'the aggrevated general condition' which contained kyphosis, weight loss, fatigue, sleep disturbance, bleeding tendency, inflammation, generalized edema and foul Oder of uremia.

Little is known about the impact of family caregiving for the demented elderly in Korea. The purpose of this study was to identify the current state of development of family caregiving research for the demented elderly in Korea and to identify correlates of caregiver or health problems and burdens within the socio-political contexts of Korea. A critical review of 17 family caregivers was carried out. The review revealed that various caregiving impacts and correlates of caregiver burden or health problems have been studied in relation to demented elderly family caregiving. Family caregiving for the demented elderly is a very complex phenomenon and various factors were related to caregiver burden, or their emotional and physical health. Findings from studies reviewed have shown inconsistent, inconclusive, and contradictory results. Furthermore, several conceptual and methodological problems were identified in the studies reviewed: restricted conceptualization, unrepresentative study samples, inadequate sample size, inappropriate study design, absence of comparison groups, inappropriate psychometric properties, and uncontrolled confounding factors. More research, as well as directions for further research, is recommended to identify family caregiving the impact of for the demented elderly, and to clarify the factors that explain results.