Abstract
This hospital has conducted Home Oxygen Therapy (hereafter referred to as HOT) on 64 cases (including 26 deaths and two cancellations) since May 1993. A surver was made by mail on the current 36 HOT patients to appraise the previously unexamined conditions, particularly in relation to the effectiveness of therapy and psychological burdens. Twenty seven patients (75%) (20 men and 7 women with an average age of 74.5) responded. The results showed that HOT contributed to improvement in appetite and sleep. Twenty-nine patients (80%) were able to manage their own oxygen equipment. However, improvement in breathing was limited only to 8 patients (22%), and no improvement was found in social activities such as going out (eg. thier movement became slow, apologizing profusely to taxi drivers and others, etc.). Other manifest problems included paying for electricity, psychological burdens of living alone on a pension, worries about cold weather, having oxygen tubes all over the room, which are characteristic of the life of the old age.
