Facilitating Self-reflection about Values and Self-care among Individuals with Chronic Conditions

Area of Science:

• Health Informatics
• Human-Computer Interaction (HCI)
• Patient-Centered Care

Background:

• Multiple chronic conditions (MCC) present significant burdens for patients, often leading to care priority disagreements with providers.
• Current clinical practices rarely incorporate patient values into discussions about self-care and treatment priorities.
• There is a need to bridge the gap between patients' personal values and their healthcare management.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate techniques that encourage patients with MCC to articulate their values and self-care practices.
• To understand how patients connect their personal values with their daily self-care routines.
• To inform the design of tools that support value-based self-care in patients with MCC.

Main Methods:

• A qualitative field study involving in-depth interviews with 15 patients in their homes.
• Utilized study activities designed to facilitate patient self-reflection on values and self-care.
• Explored patient responses to guided reflection on the relationship between values and self-care.

Main Results:

• Interviews revealed that facilitated self-reflection prompted varied patient responses, including increased awareness and perspective shifts.
• Patients identified misalignments between their values and current self-care practices.
• The study identified potential changes patients considered regarding their self-care aligned with their values.

Conclusions:

• Findings suggest that supporting patient self-reflection on values is crucial for improving care for individuals with MCC.
• The research extends prior work in HCI on supporting reflective processes.
• The results provide insights for designing digital tools to better align self-care with patient values in clinical settings.