To support self‐management for people with long‐term conditions – The effect on shared decision‐making, empowerment and coping after participating in group‐learning sessions

Abstract

Introduction Interventions that support patients to handle the emotional and medical aspects of a long‐term health condition is important. One way is to use peer‐support groups, to help patients solving problems, increasing their knowledge and making decisions. Aim was to investigate the impact on shared decision‐making, empowerment and coping after participation in group‐learning sessions for patients with long‐term conditions ( N = 42). Design An intervention following a health education programme based on group‐learning sessions was established. Eight different programmes were held in five different departments at a regional county hospital in Sweden. Methods Questionnaires were analysed using paired‐sample t ‐test. Results Results showed that patients might have better opportunities to be more active during their patient encounter after attending the group learning sessions. Interventions directed to patient activation may be one key in future healthcare management, especially concerning long‐term conditions. Empowering patients is central in healthcare, and using different approaches is important.

Characterizing Diabetes Empowerment and Motivation for Changing Health Behaviors Among People with Type 2 Diabetes: A Cross-Sectional Survey

“…Additionally, prior studies in other settings found that higher DES-SF scores are associated with higher levels of social support and higher usage of a digital remote monitoring platform [ 34 , 41 ]. Other clinical and real-world studies showed changes in DES scores before and after an intervention, suggesting that this could be used as an evaluation tool for DSMES programs or other interventions [ 39 – 42 ]. For example, in one published study, 61% of the participants had improvement in mean DES-SF scores from 3.90 (pre-intervention) to 4.30 (post-intervention) [ 40 ].…”

“…Two validated questionnaires, Diabetes Empowerment Scale Short Form (DES-SF), which is a measure of diabetes-related psychosocial self-efficacy, and Motivations and Attitudes Toward Changing Health (MATCH), can provide insight into an individual's self-reported empowerment and motivation [28,29]. The DES-SF has been used in cross-sectional surveys and clinical studies to measure the impact of interventions on diabetes empowerment [30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45]. While DES-SF is specific to diabetes, MATCH is designed to assess general attitudes towards changing health behaviors, regardless of clinical condition [28,29].…”