A Review of the Literature from Japan and Other Countries on Self-Management in Patients with Stroke

Abstract

A literature review was conducted to elucidate the status of research on stroke patient self-management and trends in this research. Seven articles from Japan and 98 from other countries were extracted from the Igaku Chuo Zasshi, PubMed, and CINAHL databases. The reports, which had been published since 2000, indicated that intervention studies had increased in other countries in the previous 5 years. Only fact-finding surveys and literature reviews were reported in Japan, while research on the development of scales and support tools, intervention protocols, intervention studies, and the evaluation of intervention programs had also been conducted abroad. Overall, there were too few fact-finding surveys that evaluated the process of self-management, and intervention programs were at the development stage. Nevertheless, the studies showed that while appropriate self-management behavior is likely to improve physical and mental function and quality of life, a certain percentage of patients do not engage in such behavior, due in part to an inadequate recovery support environment after discharge. A need was identified for criteria and scales that can be used to evaluate the process as a whole and intervention programs based on actual circumstances.