Table 2 Description of self-management behaviors that were performed with either a consistent or episodic self-management pattern
Type of Self-management behavior, number of participants describing behavior | Number of participants with a consistent pattern (diagnoses) | Number of participants with an episodic pattern (diagnoses) | Other |
|---|---|---|---|
Description | Description | ||
Long-term medication | |||
N = 21 | N = 17 | N = 1 | Two participants stopped taking medication after consulting with their physician. (rheum, MS) |
(all diagnoses) | (IBD) | One participant stopped taking her medication by herself. (rheum) | |
Participants continued to take medication as prescribed. | One participant stopped with prescribed medication which he did not find effective. Started taking another medication and later took the first medication again. | ||
Exercise | |||
N = 21 | N = 6 | N = 13 | |
(CRD, diab, IHD) | (diab, IHD, IBD, rheum, MS) | ||
Walks were the most common type of exercise. Five participants exercised regularly before being diagnosed. | Participants described having the intention to exercise but maintained the behavior in periods. | Two participants decided to stop exercise. (CRD) | |
Healthy diet | |||
N = 16 | N = 11 | N = 5 | |
(all diagnoses) | (IBD, diab, IHD, CRD, rheum) | (diab, CRD, rheum, IBD) | |
Participants described being consistent with eating healthy. | Participants described eating healthy as problematic; especially regarding having regular meals and some wanted to know more about how different foods affected their health. | ||
Smoking (and snuff) cessation | |||
N = 3 | N = 1 | N = 1 | |
(diabetes, ischemic heart disease, rheumatism) | (IHD) | (diab) | |
One participant stopped smoking at diagnosis, and described that she smoked one time during the study period. | One participant stopped using snuff, later started and prepared to stop again. | One participant described that she wanted to stop smoking but she did not try during the study period. (rheum) | |
Monitoring | |||
N = 5 | N = 1 | N = 3 | |
(diab) | (diab) | ||
One participant continued to measure blood glucoses at least once a day. | At the beginning of the study participants measured blood glucoses several times a day, over time they limited their measuring. Participants still measured blood glucose levels several times a week, but they did not take series or before or after meal tests. |