Volume 28, Issue 6: December, 2001

Abstract

A MODEL OF SELF-REGULATION FOR CONTROL OF CHRONIC DISEASE

Noreen M. Clark, PhD, Molly Gong, MD and Niko Kaciroti, MS

Chronic disease poses increasing threat to individual and community health. The day-today manager of disease is the patient who undertakes actions with the guidance of a clinician. The ability of the patient to control the illness through an effective therapeutic plan is significantly influenced by social and behavioral factors. This article presents a model of patient management of chronic disease that accounts for intrapersonal and external influences on management and emphasizes the central role of self-regulatory processes in disease control. Asthma serves as a case for exploration of the model. Findings from a 5-year study of 637 children with asthma and their care-taking parents supported that the self-regulation elements of the model were reasonably stable over time and baseline values were predictive of important disease management outcomes.