Self-Management Recommendations for Sickle Cell Disease: A Content Analysis of Websites

Abstract

This paper reports on the findings of a study designed to establish website-based self-management recommendations for sickle cell disease. Google and Yahoo search engines were used to search the World-Wide-Web. Purposive sampling was utilized to select 28 websites that met the inclusion criteria. Data were manually collected from health education materials and subjected to qualitative content analysis. Self-management was conceptualized as actions involving preventive health, self-monitoring, self-diagnosing, and self-treatment. The results show that the websites recommend more self-management actions for preventive health and self-treatment than for self-monitoring and self-diagnosis. Frequent oral fluid intake, limitation of overactivity, eating a healthy diet, avoiding extreme temperatures, and infections were the commonest preventive health recommendations. Daily pain monitoring and general bodily inspections were the most frequent sel-fmonitoring recommendations. Commonly cited self-diagnostic indicators were fever, persistent pain, enlarged spleen, and leg ulcers. The use of analgesics and nonpharmacological measures were regularly cited for self-treatment. Most recommendations were assessed as clinically safe as they align with standards for sickle cell management. Nurses and other professionals should teach patients how to assess the credibility of websites.