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Reporting on Self-care in Research Studies: Guidance to Improve Knowledge Building.

With the increasing interest in using the concept of self-care in research studies, the knowledge base for the different aspects of self-care has grown steadily. After the introduction of Orem’s grand theory of self-care in 1971, other theories, models, and frameworks have addressed the process used by patients in performing self-care with the ultimate goal of improving outcomes. Although challenges around terminology and definitions exist, self-care is acknowledged as essential in the management of chronic illness. Self-care can be defined as a process of maintaining health through health-promoting practices and managing illness. Self-care can be seen as an overarching concept built from the 3 key concepts of self-care maintenance, self-care monitoring, and self-care management. An increasing number of studies have used theories of self-care to guide the analysis in literature reviews, develop instruments to measure self-care, and develop and test interventions aimed at improving outcomes of patients with chronic diseases, as shown in the exponential increase in the number of publications on self-care (Figure). Ideally, this increasing amount of data would lead to an accumulated body of knowledge with regard to self-care. However, it is necessary to correctly interpret findings and then to combine data to reveal knowledge, transparency with regard to conceptual definitions, methods used and conclusions. Without such transparency, readers are left unclear about what is truly known and how to implement what is known into self-care interventions. The Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials 2010 statement and its extensions on reporting designs, interventions, or data, including several checklists, are helpful in standardizing reporting. These guidelines include those addressing the reporting of patient-reported outcomes (Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials PRO) and the Template for Intervention Description and Replication checklist and guide. To improve the integration of knowledge related to self-care, we propose some additional basic guidelines when reporting on studies that include self-care as the conceptual or theoretical framework, an outcome measure, or the target of the intervention. These guidelines can be used in addition to the existing guidelines on reporting of research. The aim of the guideline presented hereinafter is to streamline reporting about self-care and to help future researchers to use findings from others in interpreting their own results. The clearer and more consistent a report is with regard to self-care, the easier and more complete it will be to compare results or to learn what the results really mean. We suggest that the following elements be reported in all research addressing self-care: Self-care and key concepts 1. How was self-care defined? 2. What theoretical framework was used to guide the study? 3. Which key concept(s) was (were) addressed in the study