The influence of self-care agency and social support on self-care practice among spinal cord injured patients

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify how self-care agency and social support influence self-care practices among spinal cord injured patients. Methods: 106 spinal cord injured patients were recruited from April 12 to May 28, 2016. Structured questionnaires used were the Korean version of the Appraisal of the Self-Care Agency Scale Revised (ASAS-R), the Social Support Scale, and the Spinal Cord Injury Lifestyle Scale (SCILS). Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, t-test, one-way ANOVA, Pearson correlations, and Stepwise multiple regression analysis with the SPSS/WIN 23.0 program. Results: Self-care practices had a significant association with self-care agency (β=.30, p=.002), social support (β=.24, p=.010), and monthly income (β=.18, p=.038). A total of 21.5% of the variance explained the self-care practice among spinal cord injured patients and was explained by self-care agency, social support, and monthly income. The self-care agency was the factor most influential on self-care practices among spinal cord injured patients explaining 15.4% of variance. Conclusion: The result suggests that developing strategies enhance spinal cord injured patients' self-care agency and self-care practices.