The purpose of this paper is to explicate our emerging
understandings about self-management when people are living with chronic or long-term illness. Previous research
has revealed that common assumptions about the meaning of
self-management for people who have chronic illness require
re-evaluation (Kralik et al. 2004). In this paper, we present the findings of a research project in which we explored
self-management with older people who were diagnosed with
asthma.