Self-care behaviour among psoriasis patients attending Maharaj Nakorn Chiangmai hospital and Chulalongkorn Hospital

Abstract

This study aimed at investigating the characteristic of self-care behavior and of some its influencing factors. The study focus on self-care behavior in the prevention of 4 types of triggers factors, i.e.,- trauma, infection, inappropriate drug use and emotional stress. The eligible population included psoriatic patients aged equal or above 15 years old having attended the Dermatology Out-patients Department of Maharaj Nakorn Chiangmai hospital and Chulalongkorn Hospital from June 30 1992 to July 31 1992. It was found that 89.1%, 50.8%, 21.9% and 15.6% of psoriatic patients enrolled had poor self-care behavior in the prevention of trauma, infection, inappropriate drug use and emotional stress respectively. There was no factors significantly affecting the self-care behavior in the prevention of trauma. Peer group, attitude and belief towards psoriasis were found to be the influencing factors of self-care are behavior in the prevention of infection. d, Neighborhood attitude and belief, and educational level were also found to be the factors affecting self-care behavior in the prevention of inappropriate drug use. other chronic illnesses, types of work particularly the unskilled labor and marital status were found to be the influencing factors of self-care behavior in the prevention of emotional stress. The results revealed that 95.31% of the patients had poor self-care behavior for any of the 4 types of trigger factors. Attitude was found to be a strong influencing factor ( OR = 0.87; 95% confident interval = 0.77 and 0.991). Any successful plan to solve the problems should include modification of attitude as a priority which will involve a devoted effort of the patients and the providers.