A causal model of self-management for adolescents with Asthma

Abstract

© 2019, Thailand Nursing and Midwifery Council. All rights reserved. Self-management behavior is important for controlling symptoms and preventing death from asthma attack. Recent studies have shown that self-management of asthma among adolescents is mostly inadequate. For better design intervention to support self-management, understanding factors and how they influence self-management behaviors is necessary. Thus, this descriptive cross-sectional study developed and tested the Self-Management Model for Adolescents with Asthma. The participants were 442 Thai adolescents with asthma from 13 regional hospitals in Thailand. Data were collected by six self-administered questionnaires including; a demographic and Illness-Related Data Form, the Basic Need Satisfaction in Life Scale, Perception of Parents Scale, the Health Care Climate Questionnaire, the Aspiration Index, and the Thai Version of Asthma Self-Care Practice. Pearson’s product moment correlation coefficient and structural equation modeling were used for analyzing the data. The results showed that the final model fitted the empirical data, in which relatedness need satisfaction, intrinsic life goals, parental autonomy support, and extrinsic life goals variables explained 78% of total variance in self-management behavior. Relatedness need satisfaction and intrinsic life goals had positive direct effect on self-management behaviors. Parental autonomy support had a positive indirect effect, whereas extrinsic life goals had an negative indirect effect on self-management behaviors through relatedness need satisfaction. These findings suggest that nurses can use the model as a guideline for developing nursing interventions to promote relatedness need satisfaction and intrinsic life goals, promote extrinsic life goals for adolescents with asthma, and enhance autonomy support skills for parents.