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.

This study was carried out to offer the basic data for more qualitative lives of the middle-aged women through their health maintenance and control. So, the researcher reviewed and analyzed the health problems of the middle-aged women, the differences of main symptoms in each subject, positive rates in screening tests, the difference of screening tests with age and the correlation of obesity and blood pressure with screening tests. All subjects were 218 women(40-59 years) who had a check-up at a comprehensive health check-up center in K University Hospital in Seoul from July 1, 1998 to August 31, 1998. Questionnaires were developed to get subjects, general characteristics, main symptoms, medical examination and diagnosed disease by the researcher referring through the questionnaires of comprehensive health check-up center and the medical recorders where used as a tool of study. The researcher analyzed the data with SPSS PC+; the distribution of the subjects, general characteristics and main symptoms with percentage; the difference between main symptoms and screening tests with X2-test, ANOVA. The results are as follows. 1) Among the age distribution, most were 40-45 years old and unemployed. 2) The most common complaints were indigestion in digestive system, cough in respiratory system, heart beat in cardiovascular system, general sweat in endocrine system, edema in urinary system, easy bruise in hematologic system, backache in musculoskeletal system, headache in psychoneurologic system, lochia in gynecology, itch in dermatology system, eye ball pain in visual system and tinnitus in auditory system. 3) In main symptoms according to age, the 40-45 age group had a higher rate of complaints in digestive system and gynecology than other age group ; the 46-49 age group in endocrine system. 4) The main symptoms according to diagnosis had no difference statistically. 5) The screening tests which showed high rates of abnormality were mammography(the highest), abdominal ultrasonography, upper gastrointestinal series/gastrofiberscopy, PFT. In all age group the highest rate of abnormality was seen n mammography. 6) In screening tests according to age, the 46-49 age group showed higher positive rates of pap smear, blood sugar test, urine test than any other age group; the 50-55 age group showerd higher positive rates of obesity, BP, chest X-ray, abdominal ultrasonography, ESR, SGOT, CRP and urine micro. 7) In correlation of obesity with screening test, the obesity group showed higher positive rates of blood pressure, chest X-ray, abdominal ultrasonography, HCT and CRP than the normal weight group. 8) In correlation of blood pressure with screening test, the hypertension group showed higher positive rate of obesity, chest X-ray, abdominal ultrasonography, pap smear and blood sugar than the normal blood pressure group. In conclusion, the middle-aged women have various physical symptoms and affected by age. The obesity and BP have an important effect on the health of the middle aged women. Therefore, this study is considered significant as data for qualitative lives of the middle-aged women playing an important part of family health care by catching of their health problem complaints for prevention of disease and promotion of health.