USING SOCIAL COGNITIVE THEORY AS A FRAMEWORK FOR DESIGNING MEDICAL SELF-CARE INTERVENTIONS

Medical self-care (MSC) is defined as those actions taken by the layperson to deal with minor illnesses and injuries occurring at home. Evidence from a number of groups, in- cluding health maintenance organizations (HMOs), HMO participants, state agencies, community groups, and university students, suggest that MSC could contrib- ute to a 17% to 40% reduction in the use of medical-care facilities.10 To date, MSC program evaluation studies were more concerned with utilization and educational in- terventions without using a theoretical basis to enhance the understanding of the reasons participants use a MSC program.