Self-care capacity of Portuguese elderly people living at home
Published 2023-07-31
Keywords
- Self-care,
- Nursing Care,
- Aging,
- Elderly People
How to Cite
Copyright (c) 2023 Fátima Cunha, Maria Rosário Pinto, Margarida Vieira
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Abstract
Introduction
This article presents an analysis of the Self-Care Capacity of elderly people living at home, identifying variables that interfere with it. Aging is a stage of life in which health needs undergo continuous changes resulting from disease situations and the aging process, therefore, the implementation of adequate and effective support for the ability to take care of oneself will contribute to the promotion of health and well-being.
Objective
To identify variables that interfere with the Self-Care Capacity of elderly people living at home.
Method
This is a non-experimental, cross-sectional, quantitative descriptive and correlational study, involving 400 participants who met the inclusion criteria. Assessment of self-care capacity using the Exercise of Self-Care Agency – ESCA.
Results
Based on the multivariate analysis of variance, the existence of statistically significant differences was identified in some domains of Self-Care Capacity according to age, education and self-perception of the elderly person's health status. Overall, positive correlations were found between age and the domain Initiative and responsibility (3.6%) and between education and the domain Knowledge and information seeking (5.2%) and negative correlations between age and the domain Knowledge and information seeking (3.7%). We also found that elderly people who perceived themselves as unable to take care of themselves showed lower scores in the Knowledge and information seeking domain than those who perceived themselves as able to take care of themselves, both when self-perceived as healthy or as having a pathology (difference in mean scores of -.38 and -.53, respectively, p<.05).
Conclusion
In view of these data, and given that ageing is a stage of multiple challenges in self-care, we suggest that nurses should consider multiple strategies for elderly people to access, understand, interpret and integrate the content of the information that allows them to take care of themselves.