The self‐care approach as a new tool in modern health care. carpal tunnel syndrome, an ideal model to evaluate the efficacy of an instructional video

Objective: The proliferation of medical knowledge (including media attention for health) and this emergence of chronic disease laid fertile ground for the self‐care movement and revision of the doctor‐patient relationship. The growing emphasis on self‐care has led to increasing needs for accurate patient information on alternative approaches to clinical problems. Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) is the most frequent focal neuropathy. Postures are relevant for development worsening or improvement of CTS. Hence, CTS exemplifies a pathology in which patients can be instructed by the use of a video, avoiding wrong positions that can worsen the pathology. Materials and Methods: We developed an instructional video for CTS patients to educate themselves on how to avoid postures that could worse the median nerve entrapment. Furthermore, we performed the first steps of validation. Results: The first steps of validation showed that the video is able to transfer the arguments we believe are relevant to avoid negative posture. To complete the validation, a randomised controlled trial is ongoing to evaluate the efficacy of the video. Discussion: We can imagine self‐care as a low‐cost program for promoting health self‐management, improving elements of health status while reducing care costs in populations with diverse chronic diseases. CTS is an ideal model to evaluate the efficacy of the self‐care approach. The developed video was able to instruct patients about the importance of posture on this disease and how to avoid/modify daily activities negative for the entrapment syndrome. Note that the use of the video was explicitly intended to augment the usual doctor‐patient interaction, not to substitute it.