Potential profiling of self-management skills in older comorbid patients

Abstract

Abstract Background Under the general trend of global aging, geriatric comorbidity is increasingly common andmay have some impact on the quality of life of older people. Self-management can effectively improve patient compliance and subjective initiative and improve patient quality of life. Therefore, this study's classification of older people with comorbidities through latent profile analysis could provide a reference for later personalized intervention programs for the self-management characteristics of older people with different comorbidities. Objective Based on latentprofile analysis, we aimed to understand the categoricalcharacteristics of the self-management level of older comorbidpatients and to explore the influencing factors of the self-management level of different categories of older comorbid patients. Method Through a cross-sectional study, 616 older comorbid patients in three districts of Zhengzhou City, Henan Province, were selected as survey subjects by using the whole cluster sampling method. The General Information Questionnaire, Chronic Disease Self-Management Scale, Health Literacy Scale, Electronic Health Literacy Scale, Collaborative Social Support Scale, and Health Empowerment Scale were used to conduct the survey.The resultsof latent profile analysis show that the self-management characteristics of older comorbid patients should be classified into 3 categories: good self-management (19.4%), moderate self-management-low lifestyle (27.9%), and low self-management (52.7%). The results of multivariate logistic regression analyses show that literacy, religiosity, health literacy, e-health literacy, appreciative social support, and health empowerment are influential factors for self-management among older comorbidpatients (P < 0.05). Conclusion There is obvious heterogeneity in the self-management level of older comorbid patients, and it is recommended that healthcare professionals provide targeted interventions for their weaknesses according to the self-management characteristics of different categories of patients to enhance the self-management level of this population and improve their quality of life.