MEANING ATTACHED TO COMPLIANCE WITH SELF-CARE, AND CONDITIONS FOR COMPLIANCE AMONG YOUNG DIABETICS

This paper presents a hypothetical model of the compliance with self-c are of young diabetics, its features, its meaning to them and the prec onditions for compliance with self-care. The aim of this research was to develop a model to clarify and expand existing knowledge concerning compliance with self-care among young diabetics and to produce new id eas for planning and implementing this care, Four categories of behavi oural pattern were identified. Those young people with good compliance experienced a sense of well-being, health, and freedom, They were res ponsible, active, and well motivated in voluntarily implementing self- care. The second group were those whose actions deviated only slightly from health regimens but who had undergone many negative experiences with self-care, Their actions were guided only by compulsion, The thir d group were consciously non-compliant, Their constant neglect of heal th regimens was associated with feelings of poor health, fears and ind ifference. They were not motivated to comply, felt that the aims set, were too high and the self-care programme too tightly regimented. They felt that they received no encouragement, The young people belonging to the fourth group frankly refused to pursue self-care, Their non-com pliance was seen by them as an issue of freedom. In effect, their frie nds controlled their lives, and they felt that their self-care was all the more unnecessary since nobody encouraged them to keep to it.