Factors of Self-Care Agency in Patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease in Japan

Currently, no self-care measurement tool specific to inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) exists in Japan. The Instrument for Diabetes Self-care Agency (IDSCA) is a reliable and valid self-care measurement tool for patients with diabetes. Factors affecting self-care ability assessed by IDSCA appear to meet the requirements for patients with IBD. Therefore, we created a self-care ability measurement tool adapted from IDSCA as an original draft for the Instrument for IBD Self-care Agency and extracted factors and items required to measure the self-care ability of patients with IBD.

An anonymous questionnaire survey was distributed among 226 patients. Exploratory factor analysis examined the relationship of factors from multiple perspectives, identified factors based on their content, and confirmed their internal consistency. Statistical analyses were performed using JMP® 14.0.0.

Five factors with 23 items were extracted from the IDSCA, including ability to build a human support system, ability to acquire knowledge, ability to maintain self-care, ability to self-manage, and ability to self-assess. Cronbach's alpha was 0.765-0.861 for each factor and 0.904 for the entire scale.

We could identify the self-care agencies of patients with IBD, including 5 factors and 23 items. Focusing on these self-care factors may provide critical information to guide nurses' self-care interventions.