This descriptive study aimed to investigate self-care agency, self-care, and perceived health state of the elderly with osteoarthritis of the knee. The relationships among the variables were identified. The subjects were 130 elderly with primary osteoarthritis of the knee receiving care from the Orthopedic Outpatient Department at a hospital in a province in Southern Thailand. Data collection was carried out from February to March 2004. Four instruments, (1) personal information form, (2) self-care agency scale, (3) self-care scale, and (4) perceived health state scale, were used. A complementary therapy questionnaire was used for additional data collection. The data were presented as frequency, percentage, range, mean, and standard deviation. The relationships between variables were analyzed using Pearson’s product moment correlation. The results revealed that the participants’ self-care agency, self-care, and perceived health state were at a good level. Self-care agency had a high positive correlation with perceived health state (r=.71, p < .01), while self-care had a moderate positive correlation with perceived health state (r=.38, p < .01). Self-care agency had a moderate positive correlation with self-care (r=.37, p < .01). Complementary therapy was used by 46.92% of the elderly with osteoarthritis of the knee. Most popular was the use of hot compress and herbal treatment. The findings of this study should be beneficial to nurses and health care teams for better understanding on self-care agency, self-care practice, and perceived health state of the elderly with osteoarthritis of the knee in accordance with Orem’s theoretical constructs of self-care, self-care agency, and health state. The results also provide evidence that supports encouraging the elderly to include complementary therapy into their self-care.
Session #1219 - Poster Session I
The 29th Annual MNRS Research Conference (April 1-4, 2005)