Self-directed health care among Finnish adults and its implementation in daily life

This article describes self-directed health care based on people's everyday experiences from their own perspective. A total of 120 people (aged 30 and 50 years) participated in thematic interviews. Data were analyzed using a phenomenological, interpretive approach. Three types of self-directed health care emerged. Sixty percent attributed their self-directed health care to self-knowledge. Twenty-six percent attributed their self-directed health care to information of health as normalcy. Health and self-directed health care were distant or insignificant issues to 14%. The motives for own health care were identified in each type of self-directed health care. The strategies of self-care varied according to the revealed motives. The results increase understanding of the individual as the participant in question, related to his or her own health and health care, and can be used to develop health education programs and measurements that are meaningful from the viewpoint of people's experiential world and their daily life.