Trends in Nursing Research on Cancer Patients Nutrition in Korea

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to analyze the research trends of nursing researches done on cancer patients' nutrition in Korea and to make suggestions for future studies. METHODS: A total of 100 studies from 1989 to 2015 were analyzed. 22 nursing studies were selected for analysis the based on keywords 'nutrition', 'cancer' and 'patients'. RESULTS: Of 100 papers, 27 were doctoral dissertation and master's theses, 73 were from academic journals, 3 were thesis studies, and 19 were reported research in academic journal in nursing fields. Quantitative researches accounted for 92.0% while 20% among them were nursing researches, and other types of studies were 2%. The most frequently used research type was non-experimental 65.0%, while the ratio of experimental researches was 27.0%. The most frequently used research subjects were cancer patients without diagnostic classification with 37.0%. The most common issue of qualitative studies was the patient's nutrition condition. CONCLUSION: The further studies about cancer patients' nutrition condition need to be done with various approaches such as concept or tool development study, multi-disciplinary research, qualitative study and education program development study.