Identification of the facets of self-health management

This article reviews conceptualizations of self-health management, or self-care, from three perspectives. Positions held (pro and con) on self-care, theoretical or definitional papers, and empirical usage of self-care were examined to isolate commonalities and differences in ideas about what self-health management or self-care are. This resulted in identification of both facets of self-health management and research perspectives taken in working with the construct. It is suggested that researchers need to reach a consensus about what self-health management is and then need to invest effort in reliable, valid measures of the construct before a profitable research program can be undertaken.