Self-Care of African Immigrant Adults with Chronic Illness

Abstract

This cross-sectional study aims to describe the self-care of adult African immigrants in the US with chronic illness and explore the relationship between acculturation and self-care. A total of 88 African immigrants with chronic illness were enrolled. Self-care was measured with the Self Care of Chronic Illness Inventory v3 and the Self-Care Self-Efficacy scale. Scores are standardized 0 to 100 with scores >70 considered adequate. Acculturation was measured using a modified standardized acculturation instrument and predefined acculturation proxies. The self-care scores showed adequate self-care, with the mean scores of 78.6, 77.9, and 75.6 for self-care maintenance, monitoring, and management. Self-care self-efficacy mean score was 81.3. Acculturation was not significantly associated with self-care. Self-care self-efficacy was a strong determinant of self-care maintenance ( p < .0001), monitoring ( p < .0001), and management ( p < .0001). The perception of inadequate income was a significant determinant of poor self-care management ( p = .03). Self-care self-efficacy and perceived income adequacy were better determinants of self-care than acculturation.

The perceived effects of COVID‐19 while living with a chronic illness

“…This brief scale has been used as a separate scale with individuals with a range of chronic illnesses, with scores ranging from 10 to 50, with higher scores indicating greater self‐reported self‐efficacy or confidence in managing self‐care. There is evidence of good reliability and validity (e.g., Osokpo et al, 2022) and Cronbach's alpha in the present study was 0.922. Coronavirus impact scale (Stoddard et al, 2021). Given the relatively recent emergence of COVID‐19, this scale was chosen as a brief self‐report measure of the impact of COVID‐19, with the initial evidence of its reliability and use with a range of clinical samples (Stoddard et al, 2021).…”

“…This brief scale has been used as a separate scale with individuals with a range of chronic illnesses, with scores ranging from 10 to 50, with higher scores indicating greater self-reported self-efficacy or confidence in managing self-care. There is evidence of good reliability and validity (e.g., Osokpo et al, 2022) and Cronbach's alpha in the present study was 0.922. 4.…”

Spanish version of the Self‐Care of Chronic Illness Inventory: A validation study amongst community‐dwelling older adults with chronic multimorbidity

“…The SC‐CII is composed of three independent sub‐scales that coincide with the three domains of self‐care identified in the MRT‐SCCI: the self‐care maintenance sub‐scale (8 items measuring ‘health‐promoting behaviour’ and ‘illness‐related behaviour’), the self‐care monitoring sub‐scale (5 items measuring ‘self‐care monitoring behaviour’) and the self‐care management sub‐scale (7 items measuring ‘autonomous behaviour’ and ‘consulting behaviour’) (de Maria, Matarese, et al, 2021; Riegel et al, 2018). The SC‐CII has been cross‐validated in adult samples from Sweden, Italy, the United States (De Maria et al, 2019), China (Jin et al, 2023), Thailand (Bunsuk et al, 2023) and Albania (Arapi et al, 2023), and it has been used to assess self‐care behaviours in controlled randomized trials and other observational studies worldwide (Iovino et al, 2023; Massimo et al, 2023; Osokpo et al, 2022; Riegel, Hanlon et al, 2019; Säfström et al, 2022). However, it remains unclear whether this tool is reliable and valid to assess self‐care behaviours amongst Spanish‐speaking, community‐dwelling older adults with chronic multimorbidity.…”