Stakeholders' Perspectives, Needs, and Barriers to Self-Management for People With Physical Disabilities Experiencing Chronic Conditions: Focus Group Study.
Eric Evans, Ayse Zengul, Amy Knight and 4 others
PMID 38109170WHAT IT FOUND
People with physical disabilities, caregivers, and experts described self-management as physical activity, nutrition, medication, and mental health.
They wanted accessible digital programs with peer support, education, and ways to identify symptom triggers; fatigue, pain, cost, and medication complexity were barriers.
Key findings
01Participants with physical disabilities and chronic conditions described physical activity, nutrition, and mental health as important parts of self-management.
02Stakeholders wanted self-management programs, including web-based ones, to offer peer support, educational resources, and content tailored to each person.
03Reported barriers included symptom severity such as fatigue, pain, and mental health issues, medication complexity, and financial strain.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTs
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
The sample was recruited through disability-related advertisements and only included people available for the scheduled online sessions, so it may not represent people who could not attend. The chronic conditions represented were mainly diabetes, heart conditions, and lung conditions, so the views may not apply to other chronic conditions. The caregiver and expert/researcher groups were small, and focus group answers may have been shaped by earlier speakers. The study reports stakeholder views, not patient outcomes, so it cannot show that any self-management program improves health.
Declared interests
TM received fees from Novo Nordisk, New Balance Foundation, Heart Rhythm Clinical and Research Solutions, The Obesity Journal, and PLOS One. All other authors reported no conflicts.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read stakeholder support for web-based self-management programs as evidence that such programs improve health. The study reports perceptions, needs, and barriers, not outcomes.