Self-care for health and wellbeing – a literature review

Abstract

Introduction: Self-care concept is not a new idea, but during the scientific era that strengthened the authority of health care providers, the use of self-care became less valued. Self-care has major benefits for individuals and health care systems. Many factors influence self-care and several tools have been developed to measure an individual’s ability to self-care. Health workers play an important role helping people understand and use self-care practices. Aim: To provide an overview on self-care approach to better understand different aspects of self-care as important intervention for improving health and well-being. Methodology: A series of recently published articles in PubMed, Google Scholar, Scopus, Web of Science as well as WHO guidelines related to self-care were identified and used for this review. A database of selected articles was created, and a reference list compiled. Results: The effectiveness of self-care interventions has been found in several published articles. In patients with various diseases, higher levels of self-care are associated with better health outcomes, including reduced hospitalizations, costs, and mortality. Various studies report that self-care is influenced by several factors such as: age, education, socio-economic and health education level, geographic environment, and family support. WHO has developed competency standards for health workers to support people’s ability to self-care. Conclusions: Humanitarian crises-armed conflict, natural disasters, major disease outbreaks have a significant impact on global health and require innovative strategies that go beyond the health sector. There is growing evidence of the effectiveness of selfcare interventions for improving health and well-being. Health workers have a key role in implementing and promoting self-care interventions. Keywords: self-care, health, wellbeing, quality of life, self-care measurement.