Aim: This paper is a report of an integrative review of findings from empirical studies on self-care in school-age children with type 1 diabetes. The purpose is to generate insight into opportunities to develop empowering patient education.
Background: Managing diabetes is demanding and requires parental involvement in care. Good self-care forms the basis for diabetes management and self-care patterns are established at school age, but how and to what extent school-age children increase their self-care capabilities is unclear.
Data sources: A search for studies from 1998 to 2010 focusing on self-care in school-age children with diabetes was conducted through electronic databases.
Review methods: Using integrative methods, quantitative and qualitative papers surveyed were analysed separately, but the themes that arose were combined at the end of the analysis.
Findings: Self-care is formed in a learning process involving the objectives of normality, being able to cope and independence. The content of self-care is a combination of knowledge and skills. Children have the technical skill, but they need their parents to participate in the care and share responsibility for it. The factors related to self-care comprised the characteristics of the child; the nature of the illness and care; and support from the parents, school environment, peers and healthcare team.
Conclusion: A balance between diabetes care requirements and a child's maturity should be found. Nurses must adopt an empowering manner of education and recognize and assess a child's readiness to learn diabetes care and bear responsibility for it. Nurses must also help parents and other adults to gradually shift the responsibility to the children.
© 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.