A Review and Synthesis of Research Evidence for Self-Efficacy-Enhancing Interventions for Reducing Chronic Disability: Implications for Health Education Practice (Part I)

Chronic diseases such as arthritis, diabetes, and heart disease that cause pain, functional impairment, social and emotional dysfunction, and premature loss of wage earnings constitute a challenging problem for American society. In the absence of any effective cure for these frequently progressive conditions, the secondary prevention of complications, which requires a high degree of communication and cooperation between patient and clinician, and improving quality of life and functional capacity through better disease self-management becomes critical and are key objectives of Healthy People 2010. Part I of this two-part article described the common clinical features of chronic disease, the diverse disease…