Describing self‐care and its associated variables in ostomy patients.

Aims: To describe self‐care in ostomy patients, to identify socio‐demographic and clinical variables associated with self‐care and to identify the association between self‐care self‐efficacy and self‐care over and above the variables associated with self‐care. Design: Longitudinal and multicentre study. Data were collected between February 2017‐May 2018. Methods: In this study, 523 ostomy patients were enrolled at baseline (T0) and 362 were followed‐up after 6 months (T1). The Ostomy Self‐Care Index was used to measure self‐care maintenance, monitoring, management, and self‐efficacy. Correlations between self‐care dimensions and patient socio‐demographic and clinical characteristics were performed with Pearson's or Spearman's correlations. Three separate two‐step hierarchical regression analyses were performed to identify variables associated with self‐care maintenance, monitoring, and management. Results: Participants' mean age was 69 years (SD 12.4); 63.9% were male and most had enterostomies (38.8% colostomies, 29.3% ileostomies) and permanent ostomies (72.5%). Patients had adequate self‐care maintenance and monitoring at T0 and T1, while they had lower self‐care management and self‐efficacy at baseline. Significant variables associated with better self‐care maintenance and self‐care monitoring were female gender, more information received during hospitalization and better autonomy in stoma management, while a better level of education was an additional variable associated with self‐care monitoring. Self‐care self‐efficacy produced a significant increase in the explained variance of self‐care maintenance and self‐care monitoring. None of the selected variables were significantly associated with self‐care management. Conclusion: Middle‐high levels of self‐care maintenance, monitoring, management, and self‐efficacy were found. The variables associated with ostomy self‐care and the role of self‐care self‐efficacy identified in this study can help in developing tailored nursing interventions. Impact: This study found specific variables associated with ostomy self‐care which could contribute to guiding future interventions aimed at improving self‐care in ostomy patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]