Self-management strategies and comorbidities in chronic disease patients: associations with quality of life and depression

Self-management strategies are essential for improving prognosis in chronic illnesses. This study aimed to investigate the association between comorbidity and self-management strategies. A total of 700 patients with one or more chronic diseases including diabetes, dyslipidemia, hypertension, osteoporosis, chronic lung disease, chronic kidney disease and arthritis were enrolled. A questionnaire including the Smart Management Strategy for Health Assessment Tool Short Form (SAT), the Short Form-12, the McGill Quality of Life questionnaire, and the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 was administered to participants. The trend of each SAT according to number of comorbidities was evaluated, and the difference in quality of life and depression according to self-management strategies was examined in the model classified by the number of diseases. Self-management strategy scores tended to decrease as the number of comorbidities increased from one to four (p-value: 0.001 to 0.008). Regardless of the number of comorbidities, the MQOL score was higher in the good self-management strategy group (p: <0.001 to 0.016). The prevalence of mild depression was higher in patients with low self-management strategy, but the differences were not significant. Based on these findings, self-management strategies should be evaluated multidimensionally, and patients should be encouraged to develop effective self-management strategies to manage multiple chronic diseases.

Automated summary

The study found that self-management strategy scores tended to decrease as the number of comorbidities increased from one to four. However, the MQOL score was higher in the good self-management strategy group regardless of the number of comorbidities. Effective self-management strategies are crucial for managing multiple chronic diseases.