Severity of Hand Dermatitis and Quality of Life in Nurses / 기본간호학회지

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence, severity and quality of life for nurses with hand dermatitis who want to take advantage of measures to manage their hand dermatitis. METHODS: Participants in this research were 422 nurses with clinical experience of more than 12 months. Data were collected using a diagnostic tool for hand dermatitis, subjective severity and objective severity. The skin related quality of life was measured using the Korean version of Skindex-29. Data were analyzed using χ2 tests, t-test, and ANOVAs with SPSS 20.0. RESULTS: The prevalence of hand dermatitis among the respondents was 56.9% (240/422). Nurses with hand dermatitis had significantly lower quality of life than nurses with no hand dermatitis. The more severe the hand dermatitis, the lower the quality of life was. CONCLUSION: The finding in this study indicate that there is a need to improve the health of nurses by lowering the prevalence of hand dermatitis, alleviating the severity of hand dermatitis and improving the quality of life.