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Objective To explore the path and effect of family cohesion, family adaptability and health remind on health behavior improvement of chronic disease patients, so as to provide evidences for the family-centered chronic disease management. Methods Data of all 1 134 patients with chronic diseases was selected from the national sample survey database. t-test was used to compare family cohesion, family adaptability, health remind and health behavior improvement between different groups, and Pearson correlation was used to analyze the correlation between variables. In the process of path analysis, parameters were estimated by maximum likelihood. Results Among the 1 134 chronic diseases patients, male accounted for 41.4%, and female accounted for 58.6%. The average age of participants was (53.6±10.0) years old. The score of health behavior improvement was (1.89±1.20). Path analysis showed that family cohesion had indirect effects on behavior improvement (effect size=0.072); family adaptability had both direct and indirect effects on behavior improvement (effect size=0.156); Health remind had direct effect on behavior improvement (effect size=0.357). Conclusions The high-level family cohesion and adaptability can improve patients’ health behavior by improving the health remind. It is suggested that family-centered health management services for chronic disease patients should emphasize the participation of family members as well as the improvement of family function.
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PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to analyze research trends and to suggest future directions for research on families of patients with chronic disease. METHOD: The method used was a review of 83 dissertations and articles related to these families published in Korea between 1980 and 2002. Analysis included design of the study, sources of data, interventions for experimental research and main concepts for non-experimental research. RESULT: It was found that 80.7% of the studies were non-experimental research and 85.1% of these were descriptive surveys. In 79.5% of research studies, data were collected at a hospital. Nursing interventions in the experimental studies included stress management, education, strengthening functional communication among family members and nursing management. The major concepts were family burden, family stress and coping, and family experience. CONCLUSION: It is necessary that research on the family-as-a-client be more focused and that the results of family related research be applied to the family as a unit. Development of research instruments to measure the phenomena of Korean families of patients with chronic disease is also needed.