Patient activation for self‐management among adult patients with multimorbidity in primary healthcare settings

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Multimorbidity is a major public health and healthcare challenge around the world, including in Finland. As multimorbidity necessitates self‐management in everyday life, the effects of patient activation – a patient's knowledge, skills, and confidence in managing own health – on the capacity for self‐management warrant study, especially in primary healthcare settings. This study aimed to assess patient activation among multimorbid primary healthcare patients, identify factors associated with patient activation, and determine whether patients with low and high activation differ in terms of health and self‐management behavior, related perceptions, and health‐related quality of life (HRQoL). METHODS: A cross‐sectional survey was conducted among multimorbid patients who attended Finnish primary healthcare consultations (November 2019 to May 2020). The main outcome, patient activation, was assessed using the patient activation measure, PAM‐13®. Responses from 122 patients were analyzed using descriptive statistics, t‐tests, analysis of variance, linear modeling, the χ (2) test, and binary regression analysis. RESULTS: The mean score of patient activation was 56.12 (SD 12.82) on a scale 0–100 where ≤55.1 indicate low activation. The lower activation scores were significantly associated with old age, obesity, loneliness, and lower perceived health, functional ability, and vitality. Patients with low activation (47%) had significantly poorer physical activity, diets, adherence to care, and HRQoL, and significantly worse perceptions related to self‐management including motivation and energy, sense of normality, and support from physicians, nurses, and close people. CONCLUSION: Patient activation among multimorbid outpatients was rather low. Findings indicate that patients' perceptions of their health and psychosocial factors may be important for activation and that patients with low and high activation differ with respect to several health variables. Determining patient activation in multimorbid patients may facilitate adaptation of care to better meet patient capabilities and needs in clinical settings. Knowledge of a patient's activation level may also be useful when developing interventions and care strategies for this patient group.