The purpose of this project is to extend current knowledge about the determinants of self-care among older adults with a chronic disease. Managing chronic illness and maintaining functional status if frequently the focus of self-care among aging populations. The prevalence of rheumatic diseases among older adults and especially among women makes these conditions particularly appropriate for investigating self-care processes. Research suggests that affective dispositions could be a determinant of self-care patterns by influencing symptom interpretation. While symptom interpretations have been widely studied, the ways that affective dispositions and symptom interpretations interact to affective self-care behaviors are not understood. The documented impact of affect on cognitive processes in general, makes it likely that understanding how affect influences self-care will significantly advance our knowledge of the mechanisms underlying self-care. The specific research aims are: to examine the relationships among affective dispositions and symptom interpretation in the context of chronic rheumatic illness; to identify the independent and interactive effects of these dispositions on symptom reporting, symptom interpretations, and self-care behaviors; and to develop hypotheses about the pathways through which affective dispositions influence self-care behaviors. The design integrates interview and health diary methods to prospectively examine the influence of affective dispositions on self-care responses to symptoms in a sample of 200 non-institutionalized adults with a chronic rheumatic condition. Data will be collected at baseline and over a 3-week period via structured self-report instruments. Scales selected to measure study variable swill be re-validated prior to analyzing the data with polychotomous logistic regression. The significance of this project is that it will examine the interactive effects of three affective dispositions on self-care processes. Because these dispositions have been related to health behaviors, this project will build knowledge about the determinants of self-care in chronic illness, which is necessary for developing interventions to improve illness management.
