A Qualitative Study on Perception and Behavior Related to the Dietary Life of Patients on Home Oxygen Therapy

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate perception of dietary life and dietary behavior of patients with home oxygen therapy (HOT) and to examine effective nursing intervention for the HOT patients to achieve an appropriate dietary life.

As a result of qualitative analysis on semi-structured interviews with 15 outpatients on HOT, the patients’ perception of dietary life and dietary behavior were classified into 7 categories. Correlation analysis among the categories indicates the overall structures of perception of dietary life and dietary behavior of HOT patients. The structure contained a core category: emphasizing the maintenance of regular diet and activity. It was found that patients coped with symptoms and difficult conditions by trial and error.

These findings indicated that the following nursing interventions would be necessary for HOT patients to achieve appropriate dietary life: (a) alleviating dietary problems to make up the differences between perception and actual behavior, (b) providing. appropriate knowledge on diet, and (c) modifying inaccurate perceptions. Nurses need to play a technical and continuous role to help patients see the correlations between their disease and dietary life so that they can behave adequately.