How do primary care patients perceive information for involving themselves in self-care?

Abstract

Background. Analyze if patients receive information from their GPs to engage in self-management (medication, physical exercise or diet). Methods. A descriptive study in which 2,401 randomly selected, primary care patients were interviewed by telephone. A short scale of 6 questions was used to analyze if they received information for self-care. Statistics included analyzing differences according to age, sex, occurrence of security incidents, whether they regularly attended the physician’s surgery and length of consultation time. Results . A total of 2,350 patients responded (97.9% response rate). A total of 1,253 (34.6%) of respondents obtained 5 or more points on the scale (percentile 50). Receiving information about foreseeable prognosis increased satisfaction (OR 11.2 (95% 8.3-15.3). Consultation time length (p<0.01), regularly visiting physicians (p<0.01), and not suffering an adverse event (p<0.01) were associated with higher scores on the scale. Conclusions . Patients report they receive directions for the proper management of medication at home, but claim that they receive less information to engage in healthy behaviors. Key words . Patient activation. Patient engagement. Patient safety. Medication. Health care quality.