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. |
Diagnoses: Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), Multiple sclerosis (MS), Rheumatism (rheum), chronic renal disease (CRD), Diabetes (diab), ischemic heart disease (IHD).