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Self‐management and symptom monitoring among older adults with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
Author(s) -
Warwick Melannie,
Gallagher Robyn,
Chenoweth Lynn,
SteinParbury Jane
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
journal of advanced nursing
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.948
H-Index - 155
eISSN - 1365-2648
pISSN - 0309-2402
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2648.2009.05238.x
Subject(s) - medicine , pulmonary disease , self management , disease , copd , chronic disease , disease management , cross sectional study , physical therapy , pathology , machine learning , parkinson's disease , computer science
warwick m., gallagher r., chenoweth l. & stein‐parbury j. (2010) Self‐management and symptom monitoring among older adults with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Journal of Advanced Nursing 66 (4), 784–793. Abstract Title. Self‐management and symptom monitoring among older adults with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.Aims. To describe self‐management, symptom monitoring and the associated influences among older adults with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Background. Optimal self‐management and monitoring of key symptoms in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease reduces dyspnoea and preventable hospitalizations. Method. A prospective, descriptive survey design was used and data collected from patients with moderate severity chronic obstructive pulmonary disease during home interviews between April 2005 and June 2006. Predictors of self‐management and symptom monitoring were determined by linear regression analyses. Results. Patients’ ( n = 78) mean age was 73·37 years ( sd 7·52); 55·1% were male and 66·7% were married. Most (92·3%) had concurrent illnesses, and 48·7% had been admitted to hospital for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in the past 6 months. Self‐management was good to very good, with poorer self‐management predicted by lower self‐efficacy (β = −0·21), a weaker sense of coherence (β = −0·03), and no hospitalization in the past 6 months (β = −05). Symptom monitoring was not ideal, with more than 20% of patients not monitoring any of the key symptoms. More frequent symptom monitoring occurred among participants who were married (β = 5.14) and had more severe disease (β = 0·79). Conclusion. As self‐management and symptom monitoring ensure better outcomes among patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, health professionals should encourage these behaviours. Involving partners, promoting self‐efficacy and understanding of sense of coherence are helpful in this process.