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

TLDR

The Middle‑Range Theory of Self‑Care of Chronic Illness, widely used since 2012, lacks clarity on how symptom monitoring influences symptom appraisal and how self‑care monitoring relates to self‑care management. The study aimed to refine the theory by evaluating it for unclear areas and proposing a revision that integrates symptom knowledge with self‑care maintenance, monitoring, and management. The authors conducted a theoretical evaluation of the existing model and developed a revised framework that incorporates symptom processes into self‑care behaviors. The analysis revealed that self‑care monitoring is underdeveloped within the current theory.

Abstract

The Middle-Range Theory of Self-Care of Chronic Illness has been used widely since it was first published in 2012. With the goal of theoretical refinement in mind, we evaluated the theory to identify areas where the theory lacked clarity and could be improved. The concept of self-care monitoring was determined to be underdeveloped. We do not yet know how the process of symptom monitoring influences the symptom appraisal process. Also, the manner in which self-care monitoring and self-care management are associated was thought to need refinement. As both of these issues relate to symptoms, we decided to enrich the Middle-Range Theory with knowledge from theories about symptoms. Here, we propose a revision to the Middle-Range Theory of Self-Care of Chronic Illness where symptoms are clearly integrated with the self-care behaviors of self-care maintenance, monitoring, and management.