Manage Your Illness

Welcome! Today is Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Who's dealing with chronic illness? People just like you!

The road to a healthy life is one we all must travel, and that road is made more difficult by chronic illness. Manage Your Illness is designed for people who may have a chronic illness such as asthma, diabetes, heart disease, or rheumatoid arthritis. Here you will find information about how you can take control of your own health, and you'll be able to share information on how you personally manage your illness to help others.

Together, we can be partners in giving you the confidence and tools to work as an equal partner with your physician to manage your health.

Recently On MYI:

Barriers and enablers to referrals for patients with osteoarthritis

Tom Creer, PhD
August 5, 2008 | Discussion (0)

Pitt and coworkers conducted a qualitative study involving general practitioners (GPs) in Victoria, Australia, to examine the barriers to, and drivers of, referral of patients with osteoarthritis (OA) to self-management programs. Participating GPs were asked to respond to a series of open-ended questions regarding their referral of patients with OA... See the rest »

The self-generation of treatment options

Tom Creer, PhD
August 4, 2008 | Discussion (0)

Self-generation strategies can be used to improve learning and memory of functional activities in persons with multiple sclerosis, including meal preparation and managing finances. Goverover and coworkers examined the utility of using a self-generation strategy to improve learning and performance of everyday functional tasks in persons with multiple sclerosis (MS).... See the rest »

Self-adjustment of medications by adults with asthma

Tom Creer, PhD
July 24, 2008 | Discussion (0)

Asthma can be a variable disease, particularly when uncontrolled. Therapy, therefore, should be tailored accordingly. The aim of a study by Elrik and coworkers was to explore patterns of self-management in response to disease variability in adult patients with asthma. Five hundred and nine adults with asthma were recruited through... See the rest »

Exercise in older adults and maintenance of the behavior

Tom Creer, PhD
July 23, 2008 | Discussion (0)

Greaney and coworkers examined the efficacy of an intervention tailored to the individual's stage of change for exercise adoption on exercise stage of change, physical activity, and physical function in community-dwelling older adults. Participants (N=966) were randomly assigned to a print and telephone intervention or a contact comparison group. Through... See the rest »

Why some potential subjects refuse to participate in research

Tom Creer, PhD
July 22, 2008 | Discussion (0)

The refusal of potential subjects to participate in intervention studies is an important problem in clinical trials. In general, however, relatively little attention to it to the issue. In a study by Elzen and coworkers, a comparison was made between patients who agreed to participate in a self-management intervention (participants)... See the rest »

Coping strategies used by caregivers of HIV/AIDS patients in Scotland and India

Tom Creer, PhD
July 21, 2008 | Discussion (0)

Caring for a family member with HIV/AIDS presents multiple challenges that strain a family's physical, economic and emotional resources. Family caregivers provide physical care and financial support and deal with changes in family relationships and roles, often with little support from outside of the family. Caregivers in developing countries face... See the rest »

Use of a cognitive behavior program with diabetes in the Netherlands

Tom Creer, PhD
July 18, 2008 | Discussion (0)

The number of people with cardiovascular disease (CVD) and diabetes mellitus type 2 (T2DM) is growing rapidly throughout the world. To a large extend, this increase is due to lifestyle-dependent risk factors, such as being overweight, reducing physical activity, and following an unhealthy diet. Changing these risk factors has the... See the rest »

Teaching patients to prefer self-care dialysis

Tom Creer, PhD
July 17, 2008 | Discussion (0)

Self-care dialysis (SCD) is associated with cost savings and possibly improved quality of life compared to in-center hemodialysis. Despite this, less than one in four dialysis patients are currently treated with SCD. The objectives of a study by McLaughlin and coworkers were to identify perceived advantages of SCD associated with... See the rest »

A self-administered decision-making aid for colon cancer

Tom Creer, PhD
July 16, 2008 | Discussion (0)

Decision-making by patients is a growing topic of investigation. Previous studies, however, have not assessed whether information about the outcomes of colorectal cancer screening increased informed choice among people from a range of socioeconomic backgrounds nor have they assessed whether this can be administered away from a health-care provider. Trevena... See the rest »

Noncompliance in patients with chronic kidney disease

Tom Creer, PhD
July 15, 2008 | Discussion (0)

As with other chronic condition, medication noncompliance has a harmful impact in reaching therapeutic goals of delaying the progression of chronic kidney disease (CKD). The aims of a study conducted by Moreira and coworkers in Brazil were to calculate the prevalence of medication noncompliance and to identify medication noncompliance-associated factors... See the rest »