Self-care, Health

Metabolic syndrome is a constellation of risk factors that are precursors to
diabetes and cardiovascular disease. More women than men are diagnosed with metabolic
syndrome. Emphasis on diagnosis of pre-diabetes has resulted in further interest in
metabolic syndrome and the need for weight reduction. Advanced practice nurses care for
women with overweight and obesity in the primary care setting; however there is a lack
of evidence to support the effectiveness of nursing interventions to assist women with
metabolic syndrome lose weight.
Based on Orem's Self-Care Deficit Nursing Theory, this study investigated the
use of a specific supportive-educative nursing intervention to assist individuals make
healthy lifestyle choices to reduce body weight. A pre-test post-test, two group
experimental design was used. It was hypothesized that women given individualized support, education, and guidance about lifestyle modification, which included
carbohydrate counting, would lose more weight and have greater self-care ability than
women given general support and education.
The sample included 51 pre-menopausal women between ages 19 and 55 who had
been diagnosed with metabolic syndrome. Body weight and perceived self-care, using the
Self-as-Carer inventory, were measured at the onset of the study and again three months
later. The two groups did not differ significantly as to weight or perceived self-care at
baseline or at conclusion of the study. A repeated measures analysis of variance for
weight loss and perception of self care was calculated and the results indicated that there
was no significant difference in weight loss (p=.13) or perception of self care (p=.85)
between the two groups.
The use of a supportive-educative individualized nursing intervention enhanced
participant awareness of healthy lifestyle choices. Further research is needed to determine
the effectiveness of the intervention with a larger, more ethnically diverse sample and
with participants diagnosed with other metabolic disorders.

This study was a secondary analysis or data collected by Freeman, E., Ruppenthal, B., and Flinders, R. entitled "Meditation on a Passage and Repetition of a Mantram to Enhance Self-Care of Persons with HIV Infection" (1992). Selected data were re-analyzed considering the Self-Care Deficit Nursing Theory (Orem, 1995). Self-care consisted of daily repetition of an inspirational passage and mantra, which served as the interventions for the primary study. The primary researchers noted that Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI) scores rose significantly after the intervention. Thus, secondary analysis focused on the relationships of the basic conditioning factors (BCF) to the global and factor scores on the BSI before and after the intervention of meditation. Secondary analysis revealed a difference in scores between entry and exit on the Global Severity Index (GSI) of the BSI in reference to the basic conditioning factor of age. By the end of the 10 weeks of meditation, age was no longer a factor in causing GSI scores to increase.

Diabetes Mellitus is a chronic illness which provides numerous and varied self-care challenges to those individuals seeking to avoid or delay complications. The purpose of this study is to determine the self-care agency, as defined by Orem, of sample of 100 adults diagnosed with non-insulin dependant diabetes mellitus. Self-care agency was measured by the Self-As-Carer Inventory, a 40-item questionnaire, and a descriptive, cross-sectional design was utilized to structure the study.

This study was a secondary analysis of data collected by Freeman, E., Ruppenthal, B., and Flinders, R. entitled "Meditation on a Passage and Repetition of a Mantram to Enhance Self-Care of Persons with HIV Infection" (1992). Selected data were re-analyzed in light of the Self-Care Deficit Theory (Orem, 1995). Self-care consisted of daily repetition of an inspirational passage and mantram, which served as the interventions for the primary study. The primary researchers noted that ASCAS scores rose significantly after the intervention. Thus, secondary analysis focused on the relationships of the basic conditioning factors (BCFs) to the total scores on the Adult Self-Care Agency Scale (ASCAS) before and after the self-care intervention. Secondary analysis revealed that diet alone, from among the BCFs, differentiated the sample of HIV-infected or family members of infected persons according to ASCAS scores at study entry and exit.