|
Winners of the 2001 DESG Awards |
|
|
|
|
Page 2 of 2
Best abstract on Therapeutic Patient Education presented during the 2001 FEND Conference, Glasgow, 2001:
Leksell J, Wikblad K: Power and Self-Perceived Health among Blind Diabetic Individuals (Abstract No 5)
Högskolan Dalarna Health and Caring Sciences, Falun, Sweden
Background: The theoretical framework of this study was Barrette’s Power theory, which is based on The Rogerian nursing theory. Power is defined as being aware of what one is choosing to do, feeling free to doing it, and do it intentionally. Power may be an important factor in the management of chronic diseases. The aims of this study were: (1) to explore perceptions of power in blind individuals and relate presence or absence of power to self-perceived health and (2) to compare self-perceived health in blind individuals with that of the general health.
Methods: All 45 blind subjects at three adjacent ophthalmology centres were invited to participate in interviews dealing with sense of power and belief in the future. Thirty-nine agreed to participate. Of those 23 had become blind because of late complications of diabetes. Power was explored during semi-structured interviews and self-perceived health was measured with a 63-item questionnaire adopted from the Medical Outcomes Study. Data on socio-economic, rehabilitative and diabetes-related variables were also collected.
Result: Power was experienced by 19 of the 39 respondents and was more frequently found in non-diabetic subjects than in diabetic subjects. Those experiencing power reported a better emotional and general health compared to individuals lacking power. The perception of having power was not related to any other of the studied variables. When compared with age- and gender- matched controls from the general population, non-diabetic blind subjects scored higher in positive feelings and lower in physical functioning. In contrast diabetic subjects experienced poorer general health, less satisfaction with physical health and more negative feelings, but they reported that they did not experience limitations as a result of these emotions.
Conclusion: One way of improving health in diabetic blind individuals could be to increase the subject’s feeling of control and power.
|
