Differences in the characteristics of hospital stress between medical and surgical patients

This study explored differences in how medical and surgical patients compare on the degree of hospital stress and their subjective physical status. Subjects were 343 medical and surgical patients in five university hospitals in Seoul and Taegu. They responded to the Hospital Stress Rating Scale and a self-report on physical status. The controlled variables were age, education, number of previous hospitalizations and seriousness of the illness. Medical and surgical patient differences on nine factors of the hospital stress scale and nine areas of physical conditions were reported as follows explored: 1. 1) There was not a statistically significant difference at the .05 level in the total mean score for hospital stress between medical patients and surgical patients. 2) The mean score of the factor lack of information (M=2.308) for medical patients was higher than the mean score (M=2.064) of the surgical patients. 3) The mean scores of the factor of discomfort (M=2.130), loss of independence (M=1.889) for surgical patients were higher than for medical patients. 2. 1) There was a statistically significant difference at the .05 level in the total mean score for physical status between medical patients and surgical patients. 2) The mean scores were lower in subjective physical status for surgical patients (S) than for medical patients (M); stomach condition (S:M=2.8433, M:M=3.0000), self-assistance (S:M=3.0373, M:M=3.4498), movement (S:M=2.6716, M:M=3.2392), interest in your surroundings (S:M=3.0522, M:M=3.2632).