Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney School of Pharmacy, The University of Sydney, NSW, Australia.
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of New South Wales, New South Wales, Australia.
Chronic Illn. 2021 Sep;17(3):242-256. doi: 10.1177/1742395319869437. Epub 2019 Aug 19.
Health professional-led group programmes are a common form of long-term condition self-management support. Much research has focused on clinical outcomes of group participation, yet there is limited research on how group participants perceive and experience the support they receive. We aim to identify the different types of support that participants receive from both facilitators and other participants, and how they value this support.
Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 participants taking part in a self-management group programme for a long-term condition (obesity, type 2 diabetes or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease). Data pertaining to support types were deductively identified through a social support framework prior to interpretive thematic analysis.
Participants identified information and emotional support from both facilitators and other participants as complementary yet distinct. Facilitators' support came from professional training and other participants' support reflected the contextual, lived experience. Professional interactions were prioritised, constraining opportunities for participant-participant support to be received and exchanged.
We identified a key gap in how self-management support is enacted in groups. Engaging participants to share experiential knowledge will make group support more relevant and mutually beneficial to participants living with a long-term condition.
以健康专业人员为主导的小组方案是长期疾病自我管理支持的常见形式。许多研究都集中在小组参与的临床结果上，但对小组参与者如何感知和体验他们所获得的支持的研究有限。我们旨在确定参与者从促进者和其他参与者那里获得的不同类型的支持，以及他们如何重视这种支持。
对 20 名参加长期疾病（肥胖、2 型糖尿病或慢性阻塞性肺疾病）自我管理小组方案的参与者进行了半结构化访谈。在进行解释性主题分析之前，通过社会支持框架对与支持类型相关的数据进行了演绎识别。
参与者认为来自促进者和其他参与者的信息和情感支持是互补但又不同的。促进者的支持来自专业培训，而其他参与者的支持反映了具体的、生活经验。专业互动被优先考虑，限制了参与者之间获得和交流支持的机会。
我们发现小组中实施自我管理支持的方式存在一个关键差距。让参与者参与分享经验知识，将使小组支持对患有长期疾病的参与者更相关和互利。
