Abstract

• Purpose
  The purpose of this study was to analyze the concept of self-care in elders with dementia through a review of nursing literature and to provide more understanding of the definition and perspectives of the concept of self-care notion in elders with dementia.
• Methods
  The technique developed by Walker and Avant was used as a guide in analyzing the concept of selfcare.
• Results
  Attributes of self-care in dementia may include a single or group of actions needed for sustaining life, a personal effort to maintain functional independence while minimizing other's assistance, an outcome behavior from the person's interaction with inter-personal and/or contextual environment, and a functional ability that may decline in parallel to cognitive impairment. Antecedents of self-care in dementia may include at least presence of a certain degree of cognitive appraisal for the self-care needs, self-willingness for the selfcare action, spatial and visual orientation, cultural pre-conception of the self-care behavior, presence of environmental context/equipment available for self-care, and sufficient time available. The consequences may include sustaining of life, feel of satisfaction, achieving independence, extended life expectancy, increased self-confidence, decreased caregiver distress and/or burden, savings in health care costs.
• Discussion
  Defining attributes and antecedents and consequences of self-care in dementia identified in this study provided empirical ground of a middle-range theory of self-care for a clinical population with dementia and generated possible hypotheses to be tested in future studies.
• Keywords: Self-Care; Dementia

Figure & Data

REFERENCES

Citations

Citations to this article as recorded by  

• The Study of Self-care and Related Factors in the Elderly with Chronic Diseases in 2018
  M Avazeh, N Babaei, S Farhoudi, EA Kalteh, B Gholizadeh
  Journal of Health and Care.2019; 21(2): 135.     CrossRef
• Self-management for people with early dementia
  Gail A. Mountain
  Dementia.2006; 5(3): 429.     CrossRef