Manage Your Illness

Welcome! Today is Monday, February 8, 2010

Who's dealing with chronic illness? People just like you!

The road to a healthy life is one we all must travel, and that road is made more difficult by chronic illness. Manage Your Illness is designed for people who may have a chronic illness such as asthma, diabetes, heart disease, or rheumatoid arthritis. Here you will find information about how you can take control of your own health, and you'll be able to share information on how you personally manage your illness to help others.

Together, we can be partners in giving you the confidence and tools to work as an equal partner with your physician to manage your health.

Recently On MYI:

Acculturation and self-reported health in an Hispanic population

Tom Creer, PhD
February 8, 2010 | Discussion (1)

Acculturation is a continuous, firsthand contact with other cultures functioning at both group and individual levels. It is reflected in our culturally diverse society, calling for a greater understanding of the environmental and cultural impact on health. Self-reported health (SRH), a robust and well-validated predictor of future mortality for all... See the rest »

The majority of Americans use the Internet for health information

Tom Creer, PhD
February 5, 2010 | Discussion (3)

More than half of Americans looked up health information on the Internet last year, U.S. government researchers reported on Tuesday. But only 5 percent used email to communicate with their doctors, the survey by the National Center for Health Statistics found. Researcher at the center used a survey of 7,192... See the rest »

Test of the accuracy of a home self-test for bacterial vaginosis

Tom Creer, PhD
February 4, 2010 | Discussion (1)

Bacterial vaginosis (BV), often asymptomatic, is associated with increased gynecologic, obstetric, and neonatal risks. A pilot study by Youngkin and Lester examined the use of a nurse researcher-developed home self-test system comprised of three components (a) education, (b) self-test kit application, and (c) a scoring method. The participants were a... See the rest »

Tom Creer, PhD
February 3, 2010 | Discussion (1)

Ingerski and colleagues compared health-related quality of life (HRQOL) across 8 pediatric chronic conditions, including 5 understudied populations, and examine convergence between youth self-report and parent-proxy report. Secondary data from 589 patients and their caregivers were collected across the following conditions: obesity, eosinophilic gastrointestinal disorder, inflammatory bowel disease, epilepsy, type... See the rest »

Self-management for men surviving prostate cancer

Tom Creer, PhD
February 2, 2010 | Discussion (0)

In the context of increasing prostate cancer survivorship, evidence of unmet supportive care needs, and growing economic health-care restraints, Cockle-Hearne and Faithful examined and evaluated best approaches for developing self-management programs to meet men's survivorship needs. A search of international literature published in the last 12 years was conducted. Only... See the rest »

Differentiating diabetes self-management in controlling glycemia

Tom Creer, PhD
February 1, 2010 | Discussion (0)

Brewer-Lowry and coworkers identified approaches to diabetes self-management that differentiate persons with well-controlled from poorly controlled diabetes In-depth qualitative interviews were conducted with 48 adults, drawn from a population-based sample aged 65 years or older with diabetes. The sample was stratified by sex and ethnic group (African American, American Indian,... See the rest »

Psychological & self-management factors in near-fatal asthma

Tom Creer, PhD
January 29, 2010 | Discussion (0)

Several studies have generated conflicting results in psychological and self-management variables between patients with a near-fatal asthma (NFA) attack and asthmatics without a NFA attack (non-NFA). The difference is probably due to the heterogeneity of the events studied and the selection of comparison groups. Vazquez and colleagues sought to determine... See the rest »

Pacing self-management in reducing symptoms in chronic fatigue syndrome

Tom Creer, PhD
January 28, 2010 | Discussion (0)

Given the lack of evidence in support of pacing self-management for patients with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), Nijs and colleagues examined whether physical behavior and health status of patients with CFS would improve in response to a different pacing self-management program. The investigators performed an observational study of pacing self-management... See the rest »

Indicators of asthma control in parents and children

Tom Creer, PhD
January 27, 2010 | Discussion (0)

Successful asthma management in children requires an appropriate division of responsibility for management tasks between patient and their family. Non-adherence may result without appropriate assignment or acceptance of responsibility for these tasks. A study by Munzenberger and colleagues explored the relationship between selected child, caregiver, family, asthma characteristics, and responsibility... See the rest »

Evaluating the cost-effectiveness of booklet-based self-management of dizziness

Tom Creer, PhD
January 26, 2010 | Discussion (0)

Dizziness is a very common symptom that often leads to reduced quality of life, anxiety and emotional distress, loss of fitness, lack of confidence in balance, unsteadiness, and an increased risk of falling. Most dizzy patients are managed in primary care by reassurance and medication to suppress symptoms. Trials have... See the rest »