Understanding of Patients Suffering from Gastroenterologic Incurable Disease: Perspective of Celebrities' Embracement / 대한소화기학회지

Diagnosis and treatment of gastroenterologic disease have been progressed after twentieth century. Nowdays a lot of diseases, which were called incurable diseases before have been treated or managed successfully. But, there are still many incurable diseases left, including advanced cancer and inflammatory bowel disease in gastroenterology. Here we reviewed some cases of celebrities' gastroenterologic incurable diseases. We hoped to widen our understandings of those diseases and give opportunities for the better treatment. Embracements of patients suffering from gastroenterologic incurable diseases were diverse. We can find out they ended their lives doing the most precious things. Among them, the love for their family members were the most universal and important concerns. We hope the patients suffering from gastroenterologic incurable diseases can have more opportunities for better treatments and to be understood in their situations.

Factors Influencing Quality of Life in Patients with Gastrointestinal Neoplasms

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to identify the factors influencing quality of life after analyzing the relationship between depression, health promotion and quality of life in patients with gastrointestinal neoplasms. METHODS: The subjects of this study were 63 people who underwent treatments from 2 general hospitals in Seoul and Daejeon and had no recurrence in stages I & II of gastrointestinal neoplasms. Data was collected from March 1 to April 30, 2006. A questionnaire consisting of Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression (CES-D), Health Promoting Lifestyle Profile II (HPLP II) and Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Colorectal (FACT-C) was given. The collected data was analyzed with the SPSS program which was used for descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation coefficients and hierarchical multiple regression. RESULTS: The major findings of this study were as follows: 1) There was a significant relationship between depression (r=-.639, p=.000), health promotion (r=.407, p=.001) and quality of life. 2) Significant factors were depression (F=-4.091, p=.000) and health promotion (F=2.375, p=.021) that explained 46% of quality of life (F=10.022, p=.000). CONCLUSION: Cancer patients experienced extreme depression which led to a negative effect on quality of life. Health promotion was an important variable to the quality of life and it gave the patients motivation for having a will and belief for better health.