Open AccessHow and why patients self‐treat chronic wounds
Author(s) -
Kapp Suzanne,
Santamaria Nick
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
international wound journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.867
H-Index - 63
eISSN - 1742-481X
pISSN - 1742-4801
DOI - 10.1111/iwj.12796
Subject(s) - medicine , descriptive statistics , chronic wound , self management , wound care , physical therapy , family medicine , surgery , wound healing , statistics , mathematics , machine learning , computer science
The aim of this study was to investigate how people self‐treat chronic wounds, why they self‐treat and the assistance and support that they receive. The increasing emphasis on self‐management of chronic conditions, the potential benefits of self‐treatment to the health care consumer and competing demands on health care funding are good reasons to investigate self‐treatment of chronic wounds as we have little data on this group of individuals. A survey study was conducted in Australia. A non‐random sample of 100 participants was recruited. Participants were aged 18 years or older and currently or previously had a chronic wound that they self‐treated. All participants completed one survey. Data analysis involved descriptive statistics. The sample was, on average, 64·6 years of age; half was female ( n = 50, 50%), and the majority had a lower leg wound ( n = 80, 80·0%). The sample scored 33·9/40 on the Generalized Self‐efficacy Scale and 68/100 on the Medical Outcomes Social Support Scale. The majority of the 89 participants who used a wound dressing used a product that targeted bacteria (n = 59, 66.3%). The two most commonly selected reasons for self‐treating were ‘to be independent’ ( n = 58, 58·0%) and ‘to do the treatment at a time that suited’ ( n = 55, 56·0%). Less than one quarter of participants reported being supervised regularly during the wound episode ( n = 22, 22%), and few ( n = 6, 6·0%) reported having received education and training to support their self‐treatment. Self‐treaters of chronic wounds may benefit from standardised education and closer professional supervision to optimise self‐treatment practices. Efforts to improve patient satisfaction with professional care are required to promote a shared‐care model when self‐treating and to optimise patient outcomes.