ABSTRACT
This meta-analysis was conducted to evaluate the effects of the supportive nursing intervention and analyze its components in 14 studies carried out from Jan. 1980 to Jun. 1997. The supportive nursing intervention studies divided into three types according to the components of conceptual definitons.; (1)supportive nursing behavior, (2)social support, and (3)combination of social support and supportive nursing behavior. The various terms referred to the supportive nursing intervention didn't have the clear differentiating conceptual and operational definitions and the logical relationship among them. The effects of supportive nursing intervention were measured by the 23 dependent variables using self-report and the 5 dependent variables using physiological indices. The dependent variables were measured more than two were role behavior compliance, anxiety, depression, health belief, knowledge about the disease, helplessness and stressful behavior response. The average effects of the supportive nursing intervention ranged from 0.218 to 2.745 for the d index. The three variables of them, which were anxiety, depression and stressful behavior response, were homogeneous statistically by homogeniety test. Results of the meta- analysis indicated that the supportive nursing intervention had moderate to large effects on anxiety(d=0.41), depression (d=0.66) and stressful behavior response (d=0.86).