Self-care in chronic diseases. The patient-caregiver dyad in the Albanian reality

By. Lindita CIPA, Msc.. Maddalena De MARIA, PhD

Abstract

Background: Multiple chronic diseases mostly affect people over 65 years old, when age-related changes, complicated by physical, cognitive, and emotional problems accelerate functional decline. This increases the elderly population to a high risk of deterioration of their health condition and predisposes them to various chronic diseases. Objective: Patient self-care and the caregiver’s contribution to patient self-care is the main purpose of this study. Observation of the patient to reduce the burden of the disease and obtain better results for their life. Methods: Is a multicenter transversal study at zero time, the study provides for the administration of a validated questionnaire in the Albanian language and is addressed to a sample of 30 patient-caregiver dyads in the Albanian population, using specific tools to evaluate the management of the chronic pathology and the patient’s self-care skills and the caregiver care framework. Results: Patients were mainly male (53%) with an average age of 74 years. The average reported self-care for maintenance score was 57.63, for monitoring the score was 55.00 and for management was 59.11. For the caregivers, the most prevalent subjects were female (60%) with an average age of 60 years old. The average reported score for the contribution of caregivers at self-care maintenance was 47.08, at self-care monitoring was 55.00, and at self-care management was 59.00. Discussion: This study seeks to determine self-care maintenance, monitoring, management, and confidence by including sociodemographic and clinical variables to assess care outcomes in dyads in the context of multiple chronic conditions.

Keywords: chronic illness, chronic disease, nursing care, self-care.

How to cite: Cipa, L., & De Maria, M. (2023). Self-care in chronic diseases. the patient-caregiver dyad in the Albanian reality. Medicus, 7(1), 7–17.

https://doi.org/10.58944/rmxz4676