PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to analyze the effects of respite care. The analysis was conducted by reviewing published intervention studies on the effects of formal respite care for caregivers of dementia patients, patients with dementia, and the prevented or delayed rate of institutionalization of the patients.
METHOD
Two computerized databases (MEDLINE, CINAHL) were searched to find respite care-related articles published from the year of 1981 to 2000. A total of 49 published articles were identified. Of them, nine studies, which met for the inclusion criteria of this study, were included.
RESULTS
Results revealed that there was little evidence of the effect of respite care on, not only caregivers' burden, stress, depression and well-being, but also the rate of institutionalization of the patients. It was noteworthy that dementia patients reported fewer problems in behavior, although cognitive functioning and activity of daily living abilities continued to decline. However, these findings should be carefully interpreted because of methodological problems, such as non-random sampling, non random group assignment, a small sample size, uncontrolled confounding variables, limited period of services, and no specific types of services.
CONCLUSION
It is recommended to conduct intervention studies of respite care being conducted in Korea with the corrections of methodological problems suggested from this study.

The purpose of the present study is 1) to explain major effect models (main, moderating, and mediating) of social support and statistical methods for testing the effect models and 2) to analyze and evaluate the consistency in the use of the effect models and its statistical methods in Korean nursing studies. A total of 57 studies were selected from Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing, Journal of Korean Academic Society of Adult Nursing, Journal of Korean Women's Health Nursing Academic Society, Journal of Fundamentals of Nursing, Journal of Korean Community Nursing, Journal of Korean Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing Academic Society, and Journal of Korean Pediatric Nursing Academic Society published in the year of 1990-1999. In results, most studies on social support performed in Korea Nursing Society were about a main effect model. There are few studies on moderating or mediating model of social support. Thus, it was difficult to find research findings how, why, under what conditions social support impacted on health outcomes. Most studies on the moderating or mediating effect model of social support used statistical methods for testing main effect model rather than for testing moderating or mediating effect model. That is, there are inconsistency between effect models of social support and its statistical methods in Korean nursing researches. Therefore, it is recommended to perform studies on moderating or mediating effect model and use appropriate statistical methods.

The purpose of this study was to examine the health status of the daughter and daughter- in-law caregivers who care for a cognitively and/or functionally impaired elderly, individual to identify factors that were related to reported health outcomes, and to investigate the negative and positive impacts of family caregiving. Data was collected from 120 daughter and daughter-in-law caregivers and care-recipients using face to face interviews. Most caregivers were daughters- in-law (77.5%) and most care-recipients were female (88.3%). Sixty-eight percent (n=81) of caregivers reported depressive symptomatology. General health also deteriorated by caregiving. Caregivers reported several negative impacts (difficulties): care-recipients' problematic behaviors, deterioration of their own health, pressure from social norms related to family caregiving in Korea, intrafamily conflict, and economic problems. Contrary to the popular belief, caregivers reported diverse positive impacts of family caregiving (68.3%): a sense of filial responsibilities, recognition from elderly, family members, relatives, and society, education for the children, and familial harmony. Higher depression score was predicted by lower family income, the presence of cognitive impairment of care-recipients, and higher level of social conflict of caregivers. Poor general health of caregivers was predicted by older caregivers' age, lower competing roles of caregivers, and poor emotional health. While not seeking to deny the negative aspects of family caregiving, it is also necessary to understand positive aspects of family caregiving to see complete picture of caring for an elderly family member.

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.