[Experiences of being tied with drugs in the elderly women in community].
OBJECTIVE
This study was done to understand elderly women within a community who have used lots of drugs.


METHODS
Data was collected through in-depth interviews with four elderly women from April 2001 to February 2002. Data was analyzed by Giorgi's phenomenological method(2000).


RESULTS
The components in common with drug usage of elderly women were as follows: 'Awareness of the limitation of physical strength and uncertainty of life', 'Dread of a crisis situation occurring', 'Attachment and dependency on drugs', 'Expectation of a comfortable life and death', 'Prevention of family burden', and 'Pursuit of psychological comfort'. The general structure of experiences was as follows: causal factors were 'Awareness of uncertainty and limitation', 'dread of a crisis situation occurring' the results factor was 'Attachment and dependency on drugs' and the facilitating factors were 'Expectation of a comfortable life and death', 'Prevention of family burden', and 'Pursuit of psychological comfort'. The causal relation was cyclic. This structure showed a realistic adaptation pattern.


CONCLUSIONS
This study contributed to provide fundamental data for nursing interventions for health promotion and promoting quality of life in elderly women by increasing understanding of the experiences of drugs use.
Kim
Jeong-Sun
JS
College of Nursing, Chonnam National University, GwangJu, Chonnam, Korea. kjs0114@jnu.ac.kr
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000368:Aged; D001293:Attitude to Death; D001294:Attitude to Health; D005260:Female; D006293:Health Promotion; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D011788:Quality of Life; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000523:psychology*