A TASMAN Expedition: Development of a Questionnaire to Assess Specific Self-Management Abilities

Area of Science:

• Pulmonary Medicine
• Health Psychology
• Patient Self-Management

Background:

• Self-management (SM) is crucial for well-being and health in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) patients.
• Key determinants of SM behavior include self-efficacy, illness perception, and coping strategies.
• Current clinical tools are insufficient for assessing these determinants to tailor SM support.

Purpose of the Study:

• To verify correlations between SM and its determinants in COPD patients.
• To develop a clinical instrument for assessing SM abilities.
• To enable individualized support for COPD self-management.

Main Methods:

• Cross-sectional, observational study involving 100 COPD patients.
• Patients completed validated scales: General Self-Efficacy Scale (GSES), Brief Illness Perception Questionnaire (B-IPQ), and Utrecht Proactive Coping Competence measure (UPCC).
• Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was used to select items for the new SM assessment instrument.

Main Results:

• Moderate, significant correlations were found between SM and self-efficacy (r=0.318), illness perception concerns (r=-.230), and proactive coping (r=.426).
• PCA identified six UPCC items and nine GSES items meeting criteria.
• The new instrument incorporated these items plus one B-IPQ item.

Conclusions:

• The study confirmed the relationship between SM and its key determinants in COPD.
• A novel instrument was developed to assess SM abilities in COPD patients.
• This tool can facilitate tailored interventions to enhance patient self-management and outcomes.