dc.contributor.author | MacKichan, F | |
dc.contributor.author | Paterson, C | |
dc.contributor.author | Henley, William E. | |
dc.contributor.author | Britten, Nicky | |
dc.date.accessioned | 2016-02-22T16:07:00Z | |
dc.date.issued | 2011-06-20 | |
dc.description.abstract | BACKGROUND: Self-care is a key component of current policies to manage long term conditions. Although most people with long-term health problems care for themselves within lay networks, consultation rates for long-term undifferentiated illness remain high. Promotion of self-care in these individuals requires an understanding of their own self-care practices and needs to be understood in the context of health care pluralism. The aim was to investigate the extent and nature of self-care practices in patients experiencing long term health problems, sources of information used for self-care, and use of other forms of health care (conventional health care and complementary and alternative medicine). METHODS: The study involved a cross-sectional community-based survey set in three general practices in South West England: two in urban areas, one in a rural area. Data were collected using a postal questionnaire sent to a random sample of 3,060 registered adult patients. Respondents were asked to indicate which of six long term health problems they were experiencing, and to complete the questionnaire in reference to a single (most bothersome) problem only. RESULTS: Of the 1,347 (45% unadjusted response rate) who responded, 583 reported having one or more of the six long term health problems and 572 completed the survey questionnaire. Use of self-care was notably more prevalent than other forms of health care. Nearly all respondents reported using self-care (mean of four self-care practices each). Predictors of high self-care reported in regression analysis included the reported number of health problems, bothersomeness of the health problem and having received a diagnosis. Although GPs were the most frequently used and trusted source of information, their advice was not associated with greater use of self-care. CONCLUSIONS: This study reveals both the high level and wide range of self-care practices undertaken by this population. It also highlights the importance of GPs as a source of trusted information and advice. Our findings suggest that in order to increase self-care without increasing consultation rates, GPs and other health care providers may need more resources to help them to endorse appropriate self-care practices and signpost patients to trusted sources of self-care support. | en_GB |
dc.description.sponsorship | Department of Health | en_GB |
dc.description.sponsorship | National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) | en_GB |
dc.identifier.citation | BMC Family Practice, 2011, Vol. 12: 53 | en_GB |
dc.identifier.doi | 10.1186/1471-2296-12-53 | |
dc.identifier.other | 1471-2296-12-53 | |
dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/10871/20055 | |
dc.language.iso | en | en_GB |
dc.publisher | BioMed Central | en_GB |
dc.relation.url | http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21689455 | en_GB |
dc.rights | © 2011 MacKichan et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. | en_GB |
dc.subject | Adolescent | en_GB |
dc.subject | Adult | en_GB |
dc.subject | Aged | en_GB |
dc.subject | Aged, 80 and over | en_GB |
dc.subject | Chronic Disease | en_GB |
dc.subject | Cross-Sectional Studies | en_GB |
dc.subject | Female | en_GB |
dc.subject | Humans | en_GB |
dc.subject | Male | en_GB |
dc.subject | Middle Aged | en_GB |
dc.subject | Self Care | en_GB |
dc.subject | Surveys and Questionnaires | en_GB |
dc.subject | Time Factors | en_GB |
dc.subject | Young Adult | en_GB |
dc.title | Self-care in people with long term health problems: a community based survey. | en_GB |
dc.type | Article | en_GB |
dc.date.available | 2016-02-22T16:07:00Z | |
exeter.place-of-publication | England | |
dc.description | Published online | en_GB |
dc.description | Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural | en_GB |
dc.description | Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't | en_GB |
dc.identifier.journal | BMC Family Practice | en_GB |