Chronic disease self‐care: A concept analysis

Abstract

The purpose of this concept analysis is to clarify and analyze the concept of self‐care. Self‐care is vital in the prevention, control, and management of chronic disease. It is substantially important in all aspects of health and all levels of care, and it is key to chronic disease management. Walker and Avant's (2011) method for concept analysis was used. A literature search was performed using the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, Psych INFO, Cochrane Library, Embase, Medline, and Google Scholar databases for relevant articles published between 2000 and 2020 using the search terms self‐care, chronic illness, and chronic disease. A total of 22 articles were found for the final analysis. The three defining attributes of self‐care include readiness, ability, and activity/practice. Similarly, antecedents (illness/treatment, health systems, and environment) and consequences (health status improvement and wellbeing‐related, symptom management‐related, cost reduction‐related, and personal development‐related) of self‐care were derived from literature. Constructed cases were created to illustrate these aspects of self‐care. Through this concept analysis, the complexity and breadth of the self‐care concept are elucidated.

Letter to Editor Re: Tulu, Cook, Oman, Meek, and Gudina's article, Chronic disease self‐care: A concept analysis (2021)

“…We read with interest the recently published article, "Chronic disease self-care: A concept analysis," authored by Tulu et al 1 We concur with the authors that the lack of clarity in the term self-care represents an important limitation for the development of research and clinical practice in this field. We have been studying self-care as it is performed by individuals with a chronic condition for more than two decades.…”

“…Reviewing the literature, we also found that the concept is huge and complex to synthesize. [2][3][4] However, looking at table 1 of the article by Tulu et al, 1 where definitions of self-care are "chronologically" reported, we struggled to recognize the sequence of our theoretical developments, so here we clarify it. In 2008, a situation-specific theory of self-care in people with heart failure was formalized by Riegel and Dickson.…”

“…Self-care is not a new concept in nursing and health care, as well defined by the authors while mentioning Henderson's or Orem's historical contributions. 1 Authors were very clear about their intent to include a variety of perspectives in their broad concept analysis. Although we agree that it is important to acknowledge these contributions, we disagree that these conceptualizations should be analyzed together.…”

Description of self care management in hypertension patients

“…Self care management can be defined as an activity carried out by patients with the intention of improving health or preventing disease (Tulu et al, 2021) (Godfrey et al, 2011) (Pun et al, 2009). The purpose of self-care behavior is to improve a person's welfare, due to their awareness of the time frame for sustaining life, continuing personal development and healthy functional life (Kitson et al, 2022) (Riegel et al, 2021) (Ziguras, 2004).…”

The policy environment of self-care: a case study of the Philippines

“…, 2021 ). There are a variety of activities and areas that are considered self-care, which range from daily activities like maintaining personal hygiene and cleanliness in personal spaces to lifestyle and socialization activities such as ensuring proper nutrition and doing physical exercise and sports ( Tulu et al. , 2021 ).…”