Self-Management of Geriatric Syndromes
The Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung, BMBF) grants a research fund for our study on self-management in advancing age.
Up to 1.9 Million Euros are provided by the BMBF over 3 years for our research. On the following pages you can find more information on the status of the project and first results.
Self-management encompasses all actions people take for their health, such as symptom monitoring, medication intake, diet, and therapy compliance. Additionally, psychosocial aspects such as emotion control, goal setting, and social contacts contribute to self-management.
Programmes to enhance self-management enable better coping with health-related challenges in everyday life and improve both health and quality of life. Since the risk of illness rises along with age, self-management is an important tool to improve functionality and participation especially in the face of the demographic change. Still, many interventions to improve self-management are not sufficiently patient-centred, disease-specific and not tailored to the needs of older adults. In this project, we will develop modules for encompassing geriatric syndromes such as mobility issues, cognitive decline, and incontinence, in order to support older adults to cope with health-related and psychosocial challenges of ageing. We aim to incorporate specifically the bio-psycho-social needs of older adults.
The demographic change and high prevalence of multimorbidity in advancing age poses a challenge for healthcare systems. Improved self-management can aid in maintaining participation and well-being of older adults, while simultaneously reducing healthcare burden.
Previous interventions to improve self-management, however, are not sufficiently patient-centered and oftentimes disease-specific, which is not feasible in older adults with multiple illnesses.
In our research, we therefore initially assessed barriers and resources for self-management in a longitudinal design. Additionally we collected data to differentiate between good and bad self-management in relation to quality of life, mood, independence and social participation.
Furthermore, we performed focus group interviews with older adults, caregivers and medical staff to identify needs and wishes for self-management. This provides a richer understanding of self-management and its related factors; these personal experiences are invaluable in guiding our research.
These data serve as a base for a tailored intervention to improve self-management in geriatric patients.
Recruitment for our study is finalized. We included 279 patients during their stay at our clinics and additionally performed telephone-based follow up 3 and 6 months after discharge. We asked our patients about our health, well-being, self-management and ageing expectations.
Additionally, we perforemd structured interviews about self-management with community-dwelling older adults, patients, and medical experts.
We are currently in the process of data evaluation and analysis. Study results will be published here as soon as they are available.
First publications regarding project data can be found below.
Berges, N., Schönenberg, A., Sternkopf, A., Brückner, R., Wientzek, R., Prell., T. (2025, submitted to BMC Geriatrics). Healthcare professionals’ interdisciplinary perspective on Self- Management in geriatric patients - a qualitative interview study
Schönenberg, A., Heimrich, K., Brückner, Lochbihler, P.R., Sternkopf, A., Prell, T. (2025, submitted to BMC Geriatrics). Self-Reported Geriatric Syndromes and Their Impact on Quality of Life in Older Adults: A Patient-Centered Analysis
Prell, T., Wientzek, R. Schönenberg, A. (2025, submitted to Eurpean Journal of Ageing). Psychosocial Determinants of Health in Older Adults: The Role of Self-Efficacy and Views on Aging
Prell, T., Wientzek, R. & Schönenberg, A. Self-management of geriatric syndromes - an observational study. BMC Geriatr 23, 731 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12877-023-04442-8
Wientzek, R., Brückner, R. M., Schönenberg, A. & Prell, T. (2023). Instruments for measuring self-management and self-care in geriatric patients – a scoping review. Frontiers in Public Health 11, https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2023.1284350
Schönenberg, A., Teschner, U., Prell, T. & Mühlhammer, H. M. (2022). Validation and Psychometric Analysis of the German Translation of the Appraisal of Self-Care Agency Scale-Revised. Healthcare, 10, https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare10091785