Perceived Self-Efficacy in Self-Management of Chronic Disease

Chronic disease, now the most prevalent form of disease in the United States, differs from acute disease in many ways. One of the most important is the potential for self-management by patients. Appropriate self-management is based upon a partnership between the patient and health professionals in which each takes responsibility for portions of the management. For patients, this requires learning new skills and assuming new responsibilities. Growing evidence indicates that perceived self-efficacy to cope with the consequences of chronic disease is an essential contributor to developing self-management capabilities, and that perceived self-efficacy can be rapidly enhanced by appropriate learning experiences. Thus perceived self-efficacy is an important personal attribute in the maintenance of health. Enhancing perceived self-efficacy should be an important ingredient of the provision of health care.