N06 Self-care in patients affected by inflammatory bowel disease: SELF-IBD observational study in a single center
Authors: Napolitano D , Schiavoni E , Amatucci V , Monaci A , Martella P , Orgiana N , Benini V , Di Massimo A , Turchini L , Giordano L N , Conticelli C , Pettinari V , De Vito A , Virone C , Lorusso A , Fanali C , Ribaudi E , Bernabei T , Gasbarrini A , Scaldaferri F , Cocchieri A 
Published: January 2024

Background

Self-care is an active process to maintain and promote health in chronic disease situations, and is effective in the results of many chronic diseases. So far, few studies have been conducted on the self-care of IBD. The study of self-care in IBD is also motivate, by the increase in prevalence in the coming years and the impact on health resources it could have. In addition, the study of self-care in relation to socio-sanitary features and habits within the population affected by IBD may be the beginning to identify areas for educational interventions by health care personnel. The primary objective of this study is to describe the levels of self-care maintenance, monitoring and management in patients with IBD.

Methods

Cross-sectional observational study to evaluate self-care in IBD patient. The questionnaire used was the Self-Care of Chronic Disease Index (SCCII). The SCCII investigates three aspects of self-care, maintenance, monitoring and management and the self-efficacy. The sociodemographic characteristics and some patient habits such as smoking habit, fatigue, exercise, sleep, nutrition and supplement use, were investigated. Ethics Committee approved

Results

We enrolled 85 patients with an average age of 44.8±16.8, of which 51.8% (female) and 50.6% (CD), 48.4% (UC). The level of self-care (SCCII) areas investigated ranged from score levels of 71.30 (Self-maintenance), 79.52 (self-monitoring), 68.94 (self-management) and 75.70 (self-efficacy). In the area of self-care maintenance the aspects that seem least considered by patients (never or rarely) are stress management (44.1%) and exercise (40%). Only 57.6% of patients often or always get enough sleep and only 22.3% of patients follow a healthy diet. The presence of fatigue seems to affect 68% of patients in the self-monitoring phase. In the area of self-management, only 41.2% of patients (often or always) try to rest during the day and only 52% of the sample succeeds continuously with the appearance of symptoms. In self-efficacy, it seems that 85.8% of the patients interviewed persist in following the treatment even when it is difficult. It seems that men have more significant levels of self-maintenance score 74. vs 68.8 (p&gt;0.01) than women. Table 1 shows the average self-care scores in relation to the habits investigated.

Conclusion

From the results of our study it seems that patients with IBD have adequate levels of self-care (score ≥70), although sleep/rest, diet and exercise seem not to be highly considered by patients. Future studies may investigate which specific sociodemographic and clinical characteristics can be identified as predictors of maintaining self-care, self-care management and self-confidence, to improve areas of nurse educational intervention.