Chronic Illness and Self-Care Management. A Perspective of Diabetic Patients

Abstract

Increasing the quality of life and life expectancy of patients at acceptable levels requires the study of the ethical dimension of medical care. The research aims at understanding the social construction of chronic illness from the patient's perspective, taking into account the perspective of patients - chronic diabetic - on the significance of the chronic illness they suffer from, and the dimensions of self-care management. The research is based on a secondary analysis of data, focus groups and interviews with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus patients. The condition of chronic illness requires the patient to have a certain awareness - the disease as a life situation, the limitations that arise due to the chronic disease status, the lifestyle and the quality of the illness that arise from the disease. The chronic patient experiences the chronic condition, as the normality of his life, as what defines him or will define him his whole life.