Generic and disease‐specific self‐care instruments in older patients affected by multiple chronic conditions: A descriptive study

Aims: To describe and compare generic and disease-specific self-care measures in patients with multiple chronic conditions (MCCs) in the three dimensions of self-care maintenance, monitoring, and management. Design: Multicentre cross-sectional study. Methods: Patients aged 65 and over with MCCs. We used Self-Care of Chronic Illness Inventory to measure generic self-care, Self-care of Diabetes Inventory to measure self-care in diabetes mellitus, Self-Care of Heart Failure (HF) Index to measure self-care in HF, and Self-Care of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Inventory to measure self-care in chronic lung diseases. Results: We recruited 896 patients. Multimorbid patients with diabetes had lower scores on the self-care maintenance scale, and diabetic patients in insulin treatment on the generic management scale than on the disease-specific instrument. Multimorbid patients with HF or chronic lung diseases scored higher on generic self-care maintenance and monitoring scales than disease-specific ones. There was a partial consistency between the generic and disease-specific self-care maintenance and management. Inadequate behaviours were recorded in disease-specific self-care monitoring rather than generic ones. Conclusions: Older patients affected by MCCs scored differently in the generic and disease-specific instruments, showing inadequate self-care in some of the three self-care dimensions. Implications for the profession and/or patient care: The choice between generic and disease-specific instruments to use in clinical practice and research should be made considering the specific aims, settings, patients characteristics, and knowledge of the different performance of the instruments by users. Impact: No study has described and compared generic and specific self-care measures in patients affected by MCCs. Knowing these differences can help nurses choose the most suitable measure for their aims, context, and patients and plan generic and disease-specific self-care educational interventions for those behaviours in which MCCs patients perform poorly. Patient contribution: Patients were informed about the study, provided informed consent, and answered questionnaires through interviews.