초록/요약

Purpose: To describe health related decision-making patterns among adolescents who had heart transplantation. Methods: Multiple case study design was utilized. Cases were adolescents who had heart transplantation. Using a convenient sampling method, interview and survey data were collected form seven cases between January 2017 and June 2017. Data analysis included content analysis of interview data and descriptive statistics for survey data. Results: Themes yielded from across case analysis revealed mother as a leader of health management and father as an economic supporter with reluctance to attend school as the only society. Case analysis was performed for various degrees of importance of immunosuppressive drugs, various strategies for diet and distinct attitudes toward communicating with health professionals. Three patterns for health related decision-making were completely dependent on mothers, self-leading after crisis, and selective interaction with support system. Conclusion: Findings of this study revealed unique health related decision-making patterns among adolescents who received heart transplantation. Results of this study suggest that it is important to strengthen the support system for socially isolated adolescents receiving organ transplantation, develop family-centered evidenced based health education for mothers and their children who are recipients of organ transplantation, and distribute culturally sensitive guidelines of healthy eating lifestyle post organ transplantation.