Exploring the Associations Between Patient Affect, Self-Care Actions, and Emergency Department Use for...

Nurses and other health care providers need to ensure that patients receive care that addresses their specific needs and wants.

This exploratory study examined the associations between patients' self-reported positive and negative affect, the perceived importance of 57 self-care actions, the desire and ability to perform them, and emergency department use in the past 3 months.

A secondary analysis from a cross-sectional survey project that surveyed 250 community-dwelling adults living in the southern United States, 2015-2016. Independent t tests and the χ test were used.

Positive affect was associated with positive perceptions of self-care actions and having no emergency department visit. Patients with a more negative affect perceived finding and using services that support their health behaviors as being important and expressed a desire to participate in local health screening or wellness events.

Patients' perceptions of their self-care actions could lead to better outcomes.