This study was intended to assess the need of home nursing care and analyze the effect of home nursing care, and find out the problems during the performance of home nursing care for the chronic patients among the low-income people in urban area.
Data collection by interview was carried out from Nov. 1991 to Jul. 1992.
The main results were as follows ;
1) Total subjects for the need assessment of home nursing care were 123 households with 488 persons in a urban poor area. Over half of households(57.7%) was teenage family.
The overall living conditions were poor and the average monthly income was 580 thousands won. 74.8 % of subjects was covered by medical care insurance and only 4.7% was covered by public assistance. The morbidity rate was 8.2% among 488 subjects and 27.5% of them was not treated at all, 30% was treated in utilizing pharmacies or local clinics.
2) The subjects of home nursing care were 46 with Hypertension or DM who agreeded the participation of study among registered patients at a public health center in Incheon. Home visiting was performed at intervals per one month for one year. Most of them were the elder(mean age=61 years) and long term patients(7.8 years continued). Home nursing care was effective. That is, blood pressure(including systolic and diastolic pressure) was significantly reduced (t(n=22)=2.31, P=.031, t(n=24)=4.16, P=.000 respectively) and knowledge of disease(t(N=46)=-7.63, P=.000), attitude of disease (t(N=46)=-4.92, P=.000), and self-care(t(N=46)=-4.89, P=.000) were significantly improved through home nursing care. But there was no difference in blood sugar for diabetics between the beginning and the end of visits.
At the beginning of visit for home nursing care, sex(β=-.414, t=-3.012) and nursing need(β=.310, t=2.164) were influencing self-care, and duration of disease(β=.297, t=2.106) and nursing need (β=.385, t=2.417) were influencing blood pressure, blood sugar level. Namely, the subjects who were male and had higher nursing need showed better self-care and the longer duration of disease and the higher nursing need were relationship with the better blood pressure and blood sugar level.
At the end of visit for home nursing care after one year, the blood pressure and blood sugar level was influenced by age(β=.320, t=2.242), duration of disease(β=.352, t=2.395) and nursing need(β=.350, t=2.623) and self-care had no influencing factor. The higher age and the longer duration of disease and the higher nursing need were relationship with the better blood pressure and blood sugar level.
3) The problems that were found out during the performance of home nursing care were the absent of useful protocols for services and the clear evaluation base, and the difficulty of teaching elders who were the major part of our subjects.
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