Conclusions: Six months following hospital discharge, patients’ symptom control had
improved. Many continued to believe that their illness was outside their control, and
although self-care maintenance improved this was not associated with greater self-care
management, particularly if the patient’s emotional state was negative, and their
understanding of their condition was poor. Our data suggest that a more participative
person-centred approach, tailoring the disease management programme to address the
patient’s illness beliefs and emotional state, assisting the individual to identify barriers
and solutions, may help increase self-care confidence and management.