International Center For

Self Care Research

Key Resources

News Stories

NBC News Online: What is Self Care?

Self-care has become a ‘ubiquitous prescription for wellbeing’ and now everyone is talking about self-care.

https://www.nbcnews.com/better/lifestyle/what-is-self-care-how-cut-through-marketing-noise-actually-practice

Self-Care vs Self-Soothing: The Hijacking of Science by the Marketing Industry

The marketing industry is taking over the self-care movement.

http://www.selfcareresearch.org/self-care-vs-self-soothing-the-hijacking-of-science-by-the-marketing-industry

Policy Briefs

Self Care

WHO Consolidated Guideline
on Self-Care Interventions
for Health

World Health Organization

Self Care

A Cost Effective Solution for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health for All

A White Ribbon Alliance Policy Brief

The State of Self Care in Australia

Commissioned Report No 2017-02 February 2018

Australian Health Policy Collaboration

WHO Self-Care Wins

A global perspective on men and self-care.

A report from Global Action on Men’s Health

Articles

 A Middle-Range Theory of Self-Care of Chronic Illness

This article describes a middle-range theory of self-care that addresses the process of maintaining health with health promoting practices within the context of the management required of a chronic illness.

Riegel B, Jaarsma T, Stromberg A. A Middle-Range Theory of Self-Care of Chronic Illness. Advances in Nursing Science, 2012, 35(3):194-204.

Integrating Symptoms into the Middle-Range Theory of Self-Care of Chronic Illness

In this update to the Middle-Range Theory of Self-Care of Chronic Illness, symptoms are clearly integrated with the self-care behaviors of self-care maintenance, monitoring, and management.

Riegel B, Jaarsma T, Lee CS, Stromberg A. Integrating Symptoms into the Middle-Range Theory of Self-Care of Chronic Illness. Advances in Nursing Science, 2019, 42(3), 206-215.  

The Situation Specific Theory of Heart Failure Self-Care: Revised and Updated

Heart failure self-care involves the processes of self-care maintenance, symptom perception, and self-care management. The original theory was published in 2008 and updated in 2016.

Riegel B, Dickson VV, Faulkner KM. The situation specific theory of heart failure self-care: Revised and updated. Journal of Cardiovascular Nursing, 2016: 31(3), 226-235. PMID: 25774844. DOI: 10.1097/JCN.0000000000000244

A Situation-Specific Theory of Caregiver Contributions to Heart Failure Self-Care

The purpose of this article is to describe a situation-specific theory of caregiver contributions to heart failure self-care. Caregiver contributions include interacting processes of self-care maintenance, symptom monitoring and perception, and self-care management. Caregiver confidence and cultural values are discussed as important influences on caregiver contributions to HF self-care.

Vellone E, Riegel B, Alvaro R. A situation-specific theory of caregiver contributions to heart failure self-care. Journal of Cardiovascular Nursing, 34(2), 166-173, 2019. DOI: 10.1097/JCN.0000000000000549

Self-Care Research: Where are we now? Where are we going?

In this article we address the current state of self-care research and propose an agenda for future research based on the inaugural conference of the International Center for Self-Care Research held in Rome, Italy in June 2019.

Riegel B, Dunbar SB, Fitzsimons D, Freedland K, Lee CS, Middleton S, Stromberg A, Webber D, Vellone E, Jaarsma T. Self-care research: Where are we now? Where are we going? International Journal of Nursing Studies, 2020. 

Self-Care Research: How to Grow the Evidence Base?

In this article we address major methodological challenges with regard to the definition of self-care, use of theory, and research design, intended to provide guidance to researchers in this field.

Jaarsma T, Stromberg A, Dunbar SB, Fitzsimons D, Lee CS, Middleton S, Vellone E, Freedland K, Riegel B. Self-care research: How to grow the evidence base? International Journal of Nursing Studies, 2020.

Characteristics of Self-Care Interventions for Patients with a Chronic Condition… 

The objective of this scoping review was to provide a comprehensive and standardized description of cross-condition interventions used to enhance self-care in patients with a chronic condition.

Riegel B, Westland H, Iovino P, Barelds I, Bruins Slot J, Stawnychy MA, Osokpo OH, Tarbi E, Trappenburg JCA, Vellone E, Stromberg A, Jaarsma T. Characteristics of Self-Care Interventions for Patients with a Chronic Condition: A Scoping Review. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 2020.

Factors Related to Self-Care in Heart Failure Patients…

A wide range of factors can influence self-care behavior. The purpose of this paper is to summarize the recent heart failure literature to provide an overview on which factors might be suitable to consider to make self-care interventions more successful.

Jaarsma T, Cameron J, Riegel B, Stromberg A. Factors related to self-care in heart failure patients according to the middle-range theory of self-care of chronic illness: a literature update. Current Heart Failure Reports, 2017: 14(2), 71-77. PMID: 28213768. DOI: 10.1007/s11897-017-0324-1.