Paper
Sunday, November 4, 2007
146
Promoting Health and Self-Care across the Life Span
Donna M. Callaghan, DNSc, APRN, BC, School of Nursing, Widener University, Chester, PA, USA
| Learning Objective #1: identify the common influences of health and self-care among adolescents, adults, and older adults. |
| Learning Objective #2: identify strategies that can be used across the lifespan to promote self-care and health. |
Promoting Health and Self-Care across the Life Span Abstract Purpose: This study investigated the relationships among health-promoting self-care behaviors, self-care self-efficacy, and self-care agency across the life span. The purpose of this study was to support the integration of these concepts within a framework that can be used to promote health and self-care across the life span. Design: A descriptive multivariate design was used to investigate the relationships among the study concepts across the life span. The sample consisted of 256 adolescents, 379 adults, and 235 older adults who were responsible for self-care. The data analyzed in this study were obtained through three separate studies and merged in order to answer the research question. Methods: The instrumentation included the Health-Promoting Lifestyle Profile II Scale, the Self-Rated Abilities for Health Practices Scale, and the Exercise of Self-Care Agency Scale. A canonical correlation statistic was performed to answer the research question. Findings: Interpretation of the canonical correlation identified a canonical variate having a canonical correlation of .81 (p = .000). All variables in set 1 and all variables in set 2 loaded on this variate accounting for 65% of the variance. These findings indicate that participants who reported more frequent practice of healthy behaviors and higher levels of self-care self-efficacy also reported higher levels of self-care agency or ability. Conclusions: Since relationships among health-promoting self-care behaviors, self-care self-efficacy, and self-care agency were identified in this study, the use of the study concepts to direct the development of health promotion and self-care interventions across the life span is supported. A framework that includes strategies to increase one’s self-efficacy of the health-promoting behaviors could be used to promote health and self-care across the life span.