뇌손상환자를 돌보는 여성 배우자가 지각한 역할 스트레스와 건강상태 = A Study on Perceived Role Stress and Health Status of Wife Caregivers for Brain Injuried Patients

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Objectives : This study was undertaken to assess the role stress of wives who take care of their husbands with brain injury and their health status, to test their relationship, and to define the factors that are associated with them.
Methods : A questionnaire survey was conducted for 109 women of 30-50 years old who were taking care of their husbands with brain injury for 6 hours or longer per day for more than a month at 4 university hospitals in Daegu city and Kyungbuk province from March 10 to May 10, 2002. The questionnaire was composed of role stress scale which was developed by Yang, the physical health scale which was modified from the Archbold and Stewart’s ways by Yang and the psychological health scale which was developed by Bradburn.
Results : Mean age of the subjects was 46.4 years old and 36.7% of them were satisfied with their marital life. Average nursing time per day was 21.2hours and 56.5% of them had a relief from care taking but 63% of them did not have any helper for their domestic work. Average score for role stress was 2.49 and it was 2.47 for health status on a 1 ~4 point scale where higher scale meant higher role stress and better health status. Average score for physical health status was 2.67 and that for psychological health status was 2.27. The role stress was significantly associated with age(p=0.007), marital satisfaction(p=0.001), daily care taking hours (p=0.015), no relief from care taking(p=0.020)，and no helper for domestic work(p=0.000). High role stress was also associated with early stage of hospitalization(p=0.016), high dependence on husband for family income(p=0.039), seriousness of disease(p=0.001), and poor prognosis(p=0.001). The scores for health status was positively associated with marital satisfaction(p=0.000) and negatively associated with prognosis and severity of husband’s disease(p=0.000; p=0.000). The role stress showed a significant negative correlation with health status(r=-0.275, p=0.010), particularly with psychological health status(r=-0.546, p=0.001).
Conclusion : Nursing intervention and education are necessary to alleviate the role stress and improve health status of women who take care of their husband with brain injury.