PERCEPTIONS OF HEALTH CARE NEEDS OF THE CHRONICALLY ILL POPULATION ACCORDING TO STAGE OF ILLNESS.
Contributors: Columbia University. Teachers College.
Published: 1987
Number of pages: 177
Subjects: Education, Health.; Health Sciences, Nursing.
Description: This descriptive study was designed to determine whether perceived health care needs vary at different stages of chronic illness. Additional questions asked were: what were the priority category needs at differing stages of illness; did perceived needs vary across types of illness; and, what relationships existed between self-report health scales and importance of health care needs.

A questionnaire was developed by the investigator to measure perception of health care needs. Four stages of illness were defined. Six subscales of health care needs included: diagnostic and treatment information, self-care information, sociogenic needs, psychogenic needs, family needs, and models of care. Participants were asked to respond to 69 items by rating each item for degree of importance on a 5-point Likert-type scale. Content validity was assured in the procedures used for instrument development. Reliability of the Health Care Needs Survey was tested by Chronbach's coefficient alpha on a sample size of 146. Internal consistency was high for all subscales.

Data were collected though mailed questionnaires and distributed questionnaires to individuals diagnosed with myasthenia gravis, epilepsy, or cardiac disease. Total response rate was 68%.

Two stage specific differences among groups were identified for the stage of diagnosis and medical crisis. More significant was the determination of two priority health care needs. Diagnostic and treatment information needs were considered to be the number one priority across all illnesses and stages of illness. Models of care needs which focused on a collaborative model of care were the second priority.

There were differences in perceptions of health care needs across types of illness. Respondents with myasthenia gravis viewed all categories of health care needs as more important than did respondents with either epilepsy or cardiac disease. This difference may be attributable to the severity of the symptoms accompanying myasthenia gravis.

Recommendations included more research addressing construct validity and reliability of the instrument, investigation into the relationship of satisfaction of diagnostic and treatment information needs and models of care needs with the degree of importance of additional health needs, and further replication of this study with patients diagnosed with different chronic illnesses.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 48-01, Section: A, page: 0054.

Thesis (ED.D.)--COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY TEACHERS COLLEGE, 1987.

School code: 0055.