Effects of sociodemographic and health factors on the self-management of non-communicable diseases among Chilean adults during the Covid-19 pandemic

Abstract

Individuals with non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are potentially at increased vulnerability during the Covid-19 pandemic and require additional help to reduce risk. Self-management is one effective strategy and this study investigated the effect of sociodemographic and health factors on the self-management of some non-communicable diseases, namely hypertension, type 2 diabetes mellitus and dyslipidemia, among Chilean adults during the Covid-19 pandemic. A cross-sectional telephone survey was carried out on 910 participants with NCDs, from Santiago, Chile. An adapted and validated version of the “Partners in Health” scale was used to measure self-management. Exploratory Factor analysis yielded five dimensions of this scale: Disease Knowledge, Healthcare Team Relationship, General Self-Management and Daily Routines, Drug Access and Intake, and Monitoring and Decision-Making. The average of these dimensions was calculated to create a new variable Self-Management Mean, which was used as a dependent variable together with the five separate dimensions. Independent variables included age, gender, years of schooling, number of diseases, the percentage of Multidimensional Poverty Index in the commune of residence, and self-rated health status. Beta regressions and ANOVA for the Beta regression residuals were utilized for analyses. Beta regression model explained 8.1% of the variance in Self-Management Mean. Age, years of schooling, number of diseases and self-rated health status were statistically associated with Self-Management Mean and dimensions related to daily routines and health decision making, such as Disease Knowledge, General Self-Management and Daily Routines, and Monitoring and Decision-Making. Gender and the percentage of Multidimensional Poverty Index in the commune of residence were insignificant. Strategies for self-management of NCDs during a crisis should consider age, years of schooling, number of diseases, and self-rated health status in their design.

Estrategias sobre niveles y nodos críticos para mejorar el automanejo en personas con factores de riesgo cardiovascular en condiciones de pandemia por COVID-19

“…Estos resultados 22,23 muestran que existen distintos grados de automanejo según la dimensión (Tabla 1). El acceso y toma de medicamentos presentó el puntaje más alto y homogéneo, mientras que las dimensiones de monitoreo de signos y síntomas, de conocimiento de la relación entre COVID-19 y ENT, de apoyo del equipo de salud en pandemia, y de alimentación y actividad física, mostraron menores puntajes y mayor dispersión.…”

“…El instrumento cuantitativo sobre automanejo fue aplicado en 910 personas mediante encuesta telefónica de 40 preguntas sobre contexto sociodemográfico (sexo, edad, educación y PM), autopercepción de conocimiento y automanejo de la enfermedad, relación con el equipo de sa-lud, redes de apoyo e impacto de la pandemia en términos sociales, conductuales, económicos y emocionales 23 . Para profundizar en los factores que explican el automanejo se realizó un análisis cualitativo (entrevistas semiestructuradas), para lo cual, se seleccionaron 57 usuarios/as representativos de puntajes promedio de automanejo bajo-medio (0-6) y alto (7)(8)(9), características sociodemográficas y número de enfermedades 22 .…”

“…Mediante el resumen, sistematización y triangulación de los resultados cualitativos 22 , cuantitativos 23 y las propuestas emergidas del seminario de discusión, y el análisis del equipo investigador, se identificaron los nodos críticos organizados en niveles, que derivaron en un conjunto de estrategias para superarlos.…”

Modeling COVID-19 Binary Data in the Aspect of Neoplasms as a Potential Indicator of Cancer by Logit and Probit Regression Models

“…Youn et al [16] examined the spreading impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on people with some of the major NCDs. Nicoletti-Rojas et al [17] modeled survey data with participants with NCDs during the COVID-19 pandemic in Chile with beta regression. Gaur et al [18] investigated association between cases and deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic and various NCDs using multilevel regression in India.…”