Everyday Self-care Research Articles

Investigating cultural conflicts in everyday self-care among Chinese first-time pregnant migrants in Australia

BackgroundGiven the fast-growing migration and globalisation trends in the last decades, women increasingly experienced pregnancy as migrants and often faced complex and unique challenges related to both migration and pregnancy in a foreign land, affecting their psychological wellbeing during pregnancy. Cultural conflicts between pregnant migrants’ home and host cultures could play a critical role affecting their pregnancy experiences and psychological wellbeing. AimsThis study aimed to explore cultural conflicts that challenge Chinese first-time expectant mothers living in Australia regarding their pregnancy self-care and their psychological wellbeing. MethodA qualitative methodology was adopted utilising interpretative phenomenological analysis. Participants were 18 Chinese-born first-time pregnant migrants in Australia. A semi-structured interview schedule focused on their pregnancy self-care and psychological wellbeing and any effects of Chinese-Western/Australian cultural conflicts. FindingsTwo psychosocial approaches were identified to explain how all the participants were psychologically challenged by self-care cultural conflicts to some extent: 1) challenging decision-making processes about self-care cultural conflicts and 2) interpersonal tension if the decisions conflicted with someone's advice/beliefs/opinions. ConclusionEmotional, cognitive, and social factors were relevant in shaping the participants’ engagement with and their experiences of various pregnancy self-care activities.

Botanical drugs and supplements affecting the immune response in the time of COVID-19: Implications for research and clinical practice.

In times of health crisis, including the current COVID-19 pandemic, the potential benefit of botanical drugs and supplements emerges as a focus of attention, although controversial efficacy claims are rightly a concern. Phytotherapy has an established role in everyday self-care and health care, but, since botanical preparations contain many chemical constituents rather than single compounds, challenges arise in demonstrating efficacy and safety. However, there is ample traditional, empirical, and clinical evidence that botanicals can offer some protection and alleviation of disease symptoms as well as promoting general well-being. Newly emerging viral infections, specifically COVID-19, represent a unique challenge in their novelty and absence of established antiviral treatment or immunization. We discuss here the roles and limitations of phytotherapy in helping to prevent and address viral infections, especially regarding their effects on immune response. Botanicals with a documented immunomodulatory, immunostimulatory, and antiinflammatory effects include adaptogens, Boswellia spp., Curcuma longa, Echinacea spp., Glycyrrhiza spp., medicinal fungi, Pelargonium sidoides, salicylate-yielding herbs, and Sambucus spp. We further provide a clinical perspective on applications and safety of these herbs in prevention, onset, progression, and convalescence from respiratory viral infections.

Naturalistic Decision Making in Everyday Self-care Among Older Adults With Heart Failure.

Every day, older adults living with heart failure make decisions regarding their health that may ultimately affect their disease trajectory. Experts describe these decisions as instances of naturalistic decision making influenced by the surrounding social and physical environment and involving shifting goals, high stakes, and the involvement of others. This study applied a naturalistic decision-making approach to better understand everyday decision making by older adults with heart failure. We present a cross-sectional qualitative field research study using a naturalistic decision-making conceptual model and critical incident technique to study health-related decision making. The study recruited 24 older adults with heart failure and 14 of their accompanying support persons from an ambulatory cardiology center. Critical incident interviews were performed and qualitatively analyzed to understand in depth how individuals made everyday health-related decisions. White, male (66.7%), older adults' decision making accorded with a preliminary conceptual model of naturalistic decision making occurring in phases of monitoring, interpreting, and acting, both independently and in sequence, for various decisions. Analyses also uncovered that there are barriers and strategies affecting the performance of these phases, other actors can play important roles, and health decisions are made in the context of personal priorities, values, and emotions. Study findings lead to an expanded conceptual model of naturalistic decision making by older adults with heart failure. In turn, the model bears implications for future research and the design of interventions grounded in the realities of everyday decision making.

PMS58 EPIDEMIOLOGICAL DISEASE BURDEN OF INJURIES TO THE ELBOW AND FOREARM BASED ON ROUTINELY COLLECTED HEALTH INSURANCE CLAIMS DATA

Injuries to the elbow and forearm cause serious difficulties for patients with everyday self-care. The aim of our study was to determine the epidemiological disease burden of injuries to the elbow and forearm. Data were derived from the financial database of the Hungarian National Health Insurance Fund Administration (NHIFA), for the year 2018. Data analysed included annual patient numbers, case numbers and prevalence of care utilisation per 100,000 population according to age groups and sex. The following health insurance treatment categories were included into our study: general practice care, home care, in- and outpatient care, medical imaging, laboratory diagnostics, drugs and medical aids. Patients with injuries to the elbow and forearm were identified with the following code of the International Classification of Diseases 10threvision: S50-59. The highest national patient numbers were in outpatient care: 58,986 men and 65,374 women, in total 124,360 patients, followed by general practice care (18,732 men and 20,588 women, in total 39,320 patients), and inpatient care (4,173 men and 5,852 women, in total 10,025). Based on patient numbers in outpatient care, prevalence in 100,000 among men was 1,262.7 patients, among women 1,280.1 patients, in total 1,271.8. Average age of patients in outpatient care was 43.3 years, there was a significant difference (12.9 years) between men (36.5 years) and women (49.5 years). As regards sex distribution in outpatient care: 47.4% of patients were men, 52.6% were women, in general practice care men accounted for 47.6%, women for 52.4% of patients. There was no significant difference in prevalence between men and women. Average age of women was 12.9 years higher than that of men.

PMS55 EPIDEMIOLOGICAL DISEASE BURDEN OF INJURIES TO THE KNEE AND LOWER LEG BASED ON ROUTINELY COLLECTED HEALTH INSURANCE CLAIMS DATA

Injuries to the knee and lower leg cause considerable difficulties in everyday self-care of patients. The aim of our study was to determine the epidemiological disease burden of injuries to the knee and lower leg.

Transfigurations of aging

To date, most social anthropological studies on aging in African contexts focus on care for poor older people provided by related others. The focus of this article is different as it focuses on older people with better financial means than the average: civil servants belonging to Dar es Salaam’s middle class. Furthermore, this contribution shifts the focus from care provided through related others to practices of everyday self-care, the care that these older people provide for themselves with the help of relatives in Tanzania and the USA. In order to stay healthy and cope with diagnosed chronic conditions, older participants in this study engage in physical exercises, eat ‘good food’, and go for regular medical check-ups. This article argues that these health-promoting self-care practices of older urban dwellers reflect changing experiences of aging, health, and care, and point to transfigurations of the social imaginary of aging in Dar es Salaam’s middle class.

Experiences of persons with knee osteoarthritis using a wearable-enabled intervention involving counselling by a physiotherapist to support physical activity: a secondary analysis using an ethics lens

Purpose: Although practice guidelines strongly recommend physical activity for the optimal self-care of knee osteoarthritis (OA), physical activity levels among persons with knee OA typically fall below expert recommendations. Preliminary evidence indicates wearable technology could support persons with knee OA to be physically active. It remains unclear, however, how they experience benefits or downsides of using wearables to improve physical activity. If wearable-enabled interventions are to be successfully incorporated into everyday self-care of knee OA, better understanding of a fuller spectrum of experiences encountered by persons with knee OA is needed.

“No Amount of Baths Is Gonna Make You Feel Better”: Seeking Balance, Wholeness, and Well-being in Everyday Self-Care

Recently, the concept of “self-care” has shifted from the sphere of biomedicine into popular discourse; rather than indicating the practice of maintaining physical health, the term has come to represent a set of broader and more commonplace practices aimed at achieving balance, wholeness, and overall well-being. Drawing from interviews and participant observation with young adult respondents both in college and recently graduated, this study explores what it means to practice this type of “everyday self-care.” Those who practice everyday self-care do so to seek out a holistic sense of happiness and well-being; they value self-care that engages their “whole” self – one conceptualized as made up of both mind and body. They strive for balance in tensions between self-control and indulgence, long-term well-being and immediate gratification, and selfishness and community. Self-care cannot be summed up in a list of activities or practices; rather, it necessitates an ongoing production of moral, economic, and social meanings.

3 themes described how self care management was learned and experienced by patients with chronic illness

Thorne S, Paterson B, Russell C. The structure of everyday self-care decision making in chronic illness. Qual Health Res 2003;13:1337–52.[OpenUrl][1][CrossRef][2][PubMed][3][Web of Science][4] Q In patients with expertise in self care...

Factors that Influence the Medication Decision Making of Persons with HIV/AIDS: A Taxonomic Exploration

It is well known that patients often alter their medication regimens and that these changes may have profound consequences for their health outcomes. Not so well known are the factors that influence the medication decision making of persons managing their own treatment in their day-to-day home situations. In this study, persons living with HIV/AIDS (PLWH) were asked about factors that affected the taking of their medications. Using semistructured interviews in this study of 57 PLWH, the authors used intensive analysis of the narratives to create taxonomies of the barriers and facilitators to taking HIV medications and the decisions that were involved. Categories of identified facilitators included motivation, factors of faith, routines, and others' influences. Categories of identified barriers included perceptions, psycho-emotional issues, provider/clinic issues, interpersonal factors, and disease and treatment factors. This study showed medication decision making to be a complex process, influenced by often-competing life and treatment issues and affected by participants' beliefs and values. These findings call for research into the everyday selfcare of PLWH to understand the reasoned decision-making that PLWH use in managing not only their medications but also their lives.

Assessing quality of life in patients treated for advanced head and neck cancer

<h2>Abstract</h2> A pilot study was undertaken to determine which measures of Quality of Life (QL) would be of most use in the follow-up of patients participating in clinical trials of treatments for head and neck cancer. A total of 96 non-randomized patients who had been treated for head and neck cancer either by surgery (three patients), radiotherapy (54 patients), or combined modality therapy (39 patients) completed a detailed questionnaire assessing a wide range of QL parameters. All participating patients were clinically disease-free. It was found that questions relating to quality of speech, ability to eat, levels of energy and activity, and aspects of psychological wellbeing detected the largest effects on QL. The level of QL impairment was consistently greater in those patients treated by surgery plus radiotherapy as compared to those treated by radiotherapy alone. Eleven patients were interviewed in their own homes and the findings generally supported the conclusions drawn from the questionnaire responses. The interviews also demonstrated that impairment of arm movement amongst some surgically treated patients detracted from QL by causing difficulties in performing everyday selfcare and domestic tasks. This study has provided the basis for a QL assessment to be incorporated into a randomized trial of radiotherapy alone versus surgery plus radiotherapy in the treatment of advanced head and neck cancer. The findings suggest that QL impairment is greater for patients who have surgery in addition to radiotherapy as primary treatment but this may be acceptable if a clear survival advantage is demonstrated.

Assessing quality of life in patients treated for advanced head and neck cancer

A pilot study was undertaken to determine which measures of Quality of Life (QL) would be of most use in the follow-up of patients participating in clinical trials of treatments for head and neck cancer. A total of 96 non-randomized patients who had been treated for head and neck cancer either by surgery (three patients), radiotherapy (54 patients), or combined modality therapy (39 patients) completed a detailed questionnaire assessing a wide range of QL parameters. All participating patients were clinically disease-free. It was found that questions relating to quality of speech, ability to eat, levels of energy and activity, and aspects of psychological wellbeing detected the largest effects on QL. The level of QL impairment was consistently greater in those patients treated by surgery plus radiotherapy as compared to those treated by radiotherapy alone. Eleven patients were interviewed in their own homes and the findings generally supported the conclusions drawn from the questionnaire responses. The interviews also demonstrated that impairment of arm movement amongst some surgically treated patients detracted from QL by causing difficulties in performing everyday selfcare and domestic tasks. This study has provided the basis for a QL assessment to be incorporated into a randomized trial of radiotherapy alone versus surgery plus radiotherapy in the treatment of advanced head and neck cancer. The findings suggest that QL impairment is greater for patients who have surgery in addition to radiotherapy as primary treatment but this may be acceptable if a clear survival advantage is demonstrated.