Abstract
AbstractThis chapter offers an oversight of the concept of chronic illness and the meaning of health promotion in this context. Bodyknowledging is a theory describing patients’ process of health promotion in chronic illness that has been used as a theoretical frame for a new health intervention; the Bodyknowledging Program (BKP). This program is outlined as the aim of BKP is to activate and strengthen patients’ resources for health in chronic illness. Outcomes for patients and implications for practice are discussed.
Highlights
The concept of health promotion has traditionally been associated with preventive measures for healthy people, while health promotion in relation to people already diagnosed is a relatively new idea which is scarcely described in the literature.The goal of health promotion is to increase the involved persons’ control over their health and to improve it
Findings indicate that the Bodyknowledging Program serves as an intervention to strengthen health and empowerment across diagnostic categories, age, and gender and is suitable both in specialist and community health care [55]
Health-related outcomes of Bodyknowledging Program (BKP) like changed perspectives on health and illness, new ways of thinking and acting towards the illness, understanding situations, choices, and actions that make the health condition better or worse, widening one’s life space-being more active, and communicating differently about health-related matters [38] indicate that participating in BKP contributed to a change in the participants’ locus of control, taking it from external to internal [53]
Summary
The goal of health promotion is to increase the involved persons’ control over their health and to improve it This includes people diagnosed with chronic illness and involves mobilizing strengths for the promotion of health and well-being [1]. There is no universal consensus about the definition, it is common to apply the term chronic illness when there is a disease with a prolonged trajectory for which there is no curative treatment, and when the condition impacts the persons’ life and functioning and requires monitoring and specific management measures [2]. Due to the advent of new options for treatment, improved disease management, and improved living conditions, children diagnosed with chronic illness are increasingly surviving into adulthood. People who would previously have significantly shortened lifespan due to chronic illness are experiencing increased longevity [4]
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