Purpose : The purpose of this study was to measure pain, fatigue, perceived stress, and quality of life to identify the correlations among them, and to identify their impact on quality of life.
Methods : Data were collected from 126 outpatients dia...
Purpose : The purpose of this study was to measure pain, fatigue, perceived stress, and quality of life to identify the correlations among them, and to identify their impact on quality of life.
Methods : Data were collected from 126 outpatients diagnosed with fibromyalgia at W University Hospital in I City. The survey was carried out using a structured questionnaire. This study used Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) to measure pain, Multidimensional Assessment of Fatigue (MAF) developed by Tack (1991) to measure fatigue, Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) developed by Cohen et al. (1983) to measure perceived stress, and Kim's (1994) 44 items adopted from Noh's (1988) 47 items to measure quality of life.
Data were analyzed through PASW 18.0 for frequency, percentage, means, standard deviation, t-test, one-way ANOVA, Pearson’s correlation coefficients, and Stepwise multiple regression analysis.
Results : The results of this study were as follows.
1. The general characteristics of the subjects were as follows: the majority age group was 40-49 years (49, 38.9%) and the average age was 49.01 (±8.08) years, 60 (47.6%) graduated from high school, 78 (61.9%) had spouses, 108 (85.7%) had family and the average family size was 1.86 (±1.31) members, 117 (92.9%) had children and the average number of children was 1.87 (±0.88), 46 (36.5%) were Christians, 83 (65.9%) were housewives, and 60 (47.6%) earned less than 1 million won a month. In terms of disability, 28 (22.2%) had disabilities in daily life caused by the disease, 23 (18.3%) had disabilities in physical activity, 17 (13.5%) had pain, and 17 (13.5%) had disability in working. The most common period of sickness group was 5-10 years (45, 35.7%) and the average period was 95.33 months (±75.40). The most common period of treatment group was 1-5 years (96, 76.2%) and the average period was 35.93 months (±30.89). In terms of hours of sleep, 92 (73.0%) slept less than 6 hours, whereas 34 (27.0%) slept more than 6 hours, and the average was 274.29 minutes (±100.81).
2. As a result of the analysis on subject's pain, fatigue, and perceived stress, the average scores were 7.79 (±1.65), 39.81 (±8.53), 23.78 (±5.62), 122.77 (±14.80), respectively.
3. There were significant differences between education (F=4.082, p=.008), occupation (F=4.584, p=.002), monthly income (F=4.337, p=.003), hours of sleep (t=2.704, p=.008) in pain and education (F=3.751, p=.013), marital status (t=-2.159, p=.033), occupation (F=3.423, p=.011), monthly income (F=2.531, p=.044), period of sickness (F=5.751, p=.004), and hours of sleep (t=4.231, p<.001) in fatigue, family status (t=-2.353, p=.020), monthly income (F=5.925, p<.001), period of sickness (F=3.272, p=.041), duration of treatment (F=7.029, p=.001), and hours of sleep (t=5.285, p<.001) in perceived stress, and marital status (t=5.009, p<.001 ), family status (t=4.003, p<.001), monthly income (F=10.741, p<.001), period of sickness (F=3.727, p=.027), and hours of sleep (t=-4.199, p<.001) in quality of life.
4. As a result of the analysis on the correlations among subject's pain, fatigue, perceived stress, and quality of life, there were positive correlations between pain and fatigue (r=.616, p<.001), pain and perceived stress (r=.430, p<.001), and fatigue and perceived stress (r=.494, p<.001), whereas there were negative correlations between pain and quality of life (r=-.446, p<.001), fatigue and quality of life (r=-.544, p<.001), and perceived stress and quality of life (r=-.653, p<.001).
5. The following were the results of analysis of the effect of pain, fatigue, perceived stress, and general characteristics on the quality of life.
1) In model Ⅰ, pain (ß=-.342, p<.001) and the number of family members (ß=.274, p=.005) significantly affected quality of life (R²=.313).
2) In model Ⅱ, fatigue (ß=-.434, p<.001) and the number of family members (ß=.305, p=.001) significantly affected the quality of life (R²=.373).
3) In model Ⅲ, perceived stress (ß=-.551, p<.001) and the number of family members (ß=.209, p=.016) significantly affected the quality of life (R²=.466).
4) In model Ⅳ, pain (ß=-.079, p=.356) was not significant whereas fatigue (ß=-.215, p=.016), perceived stress (ß=-.436, p<.001), and number of family members (ß=.192, p=.022) affected the quality of life (R²=.507). Among them, perceived stress was the most significant factor that affected quality of life.
Conclusion : This study found that patients with fibromyalgia had been experiencing moderate to severe pain, fatigue, and perceived stress. These symptoms that correlated with one another were important factors that reduced the quality of life. Among them, perceived stress, fatigue, and the number of family members significantly affected the quality of life. Consequently, in order to promote quality of life, nursing interventions focusing on the management of stress and the development of family support programs need to be developed.