Factors affecting the quality of life of middle-aged women suffering Hwa-Byung.

Aims and objectives. To test a staged theoretical model designed to explain causal relationships affecting the quality of life (QOL) of middle-aged Korean women suffering from Hwa-Byung (HB). Background. The model contains three stages comprised of antecedents (stage 1), perception (stage 2) and outcome variable (stage 3). Stage 1 contains individual characteristic and emotional distress variables. In stage 2, the perception variable is depression (DEP). In stage 3, the outcome factor is QOL. Design. A cross-sectional, descriptive design was used. Methods. A convenience sample of 135 community dwelling middle-aged women was recruited over a five-month period in the neuropsychology outpatient clinic at an Oriental hospital in Korea. The instruments were the Korean version of WHO Quality of Life-BREF (WHOQOL-BREF), Korean version of State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory (STAXI-K), The Korean version of State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI-K) and Korean version of Beck Depression Inventory (K-BDI). Results. Forty-five per cent of the variance in the QOL of women with HB was explained by the direct effect of depression (β = −0·356, p = 0·000) and trait anxiety (β = −0·324, p = 0·001). State anger (β = 0·429, p = 0·000) and spouse (β = −0·180, p = 0·021) explained 45·0% of the variance in (of) depression. Conclusion. The findings showed that depression mediates the relationship between the emotional distress and QOL as a negative outcome. Relevance to clinical practice. These relationships can guide researchers and psychiatric mental health nurses to understand depression as a mediating factor and to develop nursing interventions to improve QOL of HB women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]