A survey of self-neglect in patients living in the community.
Self-neglect is a familiar concept to all community nurses. Nevertheless there have been few empirical studies undertaken in this area over the last 30 years. The study of self-neglect has been hampered by inadequate conceptualization and a lack of theoretical frameworks. This article reports a study of patients who did and did not self-neglect, drawn from district nursing caseloads. Patients with self-neglect had lower levels of operable self-care agency than patients in a comparison group. Only self-neglecting patients had the nursing diagnoses 'ineffective management of therapy' and 'non-compliance'.
Lauder
W
W
University of Stirling, Inverness, UK.
D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003152:Community Health Nursing; D004552:Elder Abuse / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D015577:Geriatric Assessment; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009733:Nursing Diagnosis; D012648:Self Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D016728:Self-Injurious Behavior / Q000453:epidemiology*