KJCKorea
Journal Central

Purpose: This systematic review examined the characteristics and reported outcomes of digital health-based symptom-monitoring and symptom-management components for patients with lung cancer. Methods: This review followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses 2020 statement and was registered in PROSPERO (CRD420261362833). PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, CINAHL, RISS, and DBpia were searched from inception to February 23, 2026. Studies were included if they utilized digital health-based symptom monitoring to adults with lung cancer or lung cancer-inclusive mixed-cancer populations and reported intervention-related outcomes. Study characteristics, intervention components, digital health modalities, and outcome variables were extracted and analyzed. Methodological quality was assessed using the Joanna Briggs Institute Critical Appraisal Checklist. Results: Ten studies were included. Digital health modalities included mobile applications, web-based systems, institution-provided electronic devices, and interactive voice-response systems. Interventions commonly incorporated symptom reporting, severity classification, automated alerts, self-management information, and clinician feedback. Digital health-based symptom monitoring showed potential for improved symptom burden and quality of life; however, outcomes varied across studies. Positive outcomes were observed in some studies that included alerts and clinician’s responses in case of symptom deterioration. Evidence regarding unplanned healthcare utilization remained limited. Conclusion: Digital health-based symptom monitoring in studies among patients with lung cancer showed potential to support early identification of symptom deterioration and symptom management in some studies; however, the findings should be interpreted cautiously because symptom-management components varied across studies. Future studies should clearly define symptom items, assessment timing, intervention duration, and feedback systems according to the treatment trajectory and symptom characteristics.

Purpose: To identify the factors that were associated with hand-hygiene practices among community residents during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. Methods: This secondary analysis included the data of 222,831 adults (aged ≥19 years) who participated in the 2021 Community Health Survey. Adherence to hand-hygiene practices was defined by responses of “always” or “often” to questions regarding handwashing before meals, after toilet use, and after returning from outdoors. Data were analyzed using complex sample analysis. Furthermore, descriptive statistics, Rao-Scott x 2 tests, and multiple logistic regression were performed. Results: In this cohort, the prevalence of hand-hygiene practices was 87.0%. Higher hand-hygiene practice was associated with being female; older age; higher education and equivalized household income; urban residence; non-smoking and non-drinking status; regular tooth brushing; better perceived health status; and higher perceived susceptibility and severity regarding COVID-19. Conclusion: Despite the emphasis on hand hygiene during the COVID-19 pandemic, some residents did not comply with hand-hygiene practices. Targeted education and promotion to improve hand-hygiene practices are needed among groups with lower adherence.

Purpose: To use van Manen’s hermeneutic phenomenological approach for exploring the lived experiences of women and men who have experienced infertility treatment. Methods: This qualitative hermeneutic phenome￾nological study enrolled seven participants (comprising both women and men) diagnosed with infertility who were undergoing or planning treatment. Data were collected through individual in-depth interviews and analyzed using repeated reading, reflective writing, and thematic interpretation, while reflecting on van Manen’s existential themes of lived time, body, relation, and space. Results: Four essential themes emerged: being displaced from expected parenthood and drawn into the time of treatment; bodies adjusted toward pregnancy and the helplessness of bodies that were unable to take over the other’s pain; enduring together from different positions within relationships; and continuing an unending struggle to achieve and sustain a pregnancy. Participants experienced infertility treatment as an existential process that reorganized everyday time around treatment schedules, reshaped bodily experiences in gendered ways, reconfigured marital and social relationships through endurance, support, selective disclosure, and silence, and continued beyond conception through anxiety, loss, and renewed reflection on life’s meaning. Conclusion: Infertility treatment should be understood not only as a medical process directed toward pregnancy, but also as a lived experience that reshapes time, body, relationships, and meaning in life. Nursing care should provide integrated, gender-sensitive, and continuous relational support. This care must address women’s bodily burdens, men’s helplessness and support needs, relational strain and bonding, selective disclosure, and ongoing anxiety and loss.