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.
