DETERMINANTS OF FUNCTIONAL STATUS IN CHRONICALLY ILL ADULTS (SELF CARE).
Contributors: University of Alabama at Birmingham.
Published: 1995
Number of pages: 123
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.
Description: Individuals with chronic illnesses have major responsibilities for managing their own self-care so as to minimize illness complications and promote optimal physical and social functioning. Adult health nurses need to be able to assess the likelihood that clients will be able to manage their own care effectively at home, but predictive factors are largely unknown. This study examined the relationships among selected basic conditioning factors and self-care agency as identified by Orem (1991) and functional status in chronically ill adults. Additionally, the investigator aimed to determine which combination of study variables best predicts self-care agency and functional status in chronically ill adults.

Data were collected using two instruments. The Denyes Self-Care Agency Instrument (DSCAI-90) (Denyes, 1980) was used to gather information to measure basic conditioning factors and self-care agency. The Enforced Social Dependency Scale (ESDS) (McCorkle & Benoliel, 1981) was used to assess subjects' functional status. These instruments were administered to a convenience sample of 90 chronically ill adults with three medical diagnoses (diabetes mellitus (n = 30), essential hypertension (n = 30), and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (n = 30)). Thirty-two (32) women and 58 men participated in the study. All of the subjects had been diagnosed for at least 1 year, could read and speak English, and had no current psychiatric diagnosis. Ages ranged from 28 to 81 years.

Descriptive statistics were used to describe the sample. Various measures of association were calculated to answer the study's research questions.

Analysis of data revealed a statistically significant relationship between educational level, a measure of the sociocultural basic conditioning factor, and self-care agency (r =.30, p =.005). No significant findings emerged in this sample for age, sex, and health state as they related to self-care agency. Of the variables in the study, sex and health state were the best predictors of functional status. These variables accounted for 14% of the variance in functional status.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 56-10, Section: B, page: 5424.

Thesis (D.S.N.)--UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA AT BIRMINGHAM, 1995.

School code: 0005.