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Antalet personer som genomför egenvård med hjälp av avancerad medicinsk-teknisk utrustning hemma ökar. Utrustning för syrgas, dialys och respiratorbehandling är exempel på sådan teknologi. Denna artikel beskriver ett forskningsprojekt som haft till syfte att utveckla kunskap om egenvård och transition, och om faktorer som påverkar dagligt liv och hälsa bland personer som använder avancerad medicinsk-teknisk utrustning hemma. Resultaten från tre kvalitativa delstudier och en kvantitativ delstudie beskrivs, och diskuteras därefter utifrån kliniska implikationer., Self-care among persons using advanced medical technology at home The use of advanced medical technology at home has increased. Equipment for long-term oxygen treatment, dialysis and ventilator treatment are examples of such technology. This article describes a research project with the aim to develop knowledge of self-care and transition, and issues that influence daily life and health among persons using advanced medical technology at home. Results from three qualitative studies and one quantitative study are described and further discussed with regard to clinical implications.

The use of advanced medical technology at home has increased in most industrialized countries. The overall aim of this thesis was to develop knowledge of self-care and transition and issues that influence daily life and health among persons using advanced medical technology at home. Three qualitative studies were performed to describe the structure of self-care (I) and elucidate meanings of health-illness transition experiences among persons using long-term oxygen, or a ventila-tor, or performing blood or peritoneal dialysis (II), and to gain a deeper understanding of the meaning of living with an adult family member in this context (III). Ten interviews with adult patients (I-II) and ten with adult next of kin (III) in this context were performed and analysed with descriptive phenome-nological (I), phenomenological hermeneutical (II) and hermeneutical (III) methods. A quantitative, descriptive, comparative, cross-sectional design was used to describe and find factors that influence self-care agency and perceived health in a larger group of persons (180 patients) using the enumerated types of advanced medical technology at home (IV). In the results, (I) self-care among persons using long-term oxygen, a ventilator, or equipment for blood or peritoneal dialysis at home was described at a generic level, independent of the specific type of technology used. The general description of self-care in this context involved prerequisites for, activities for and consequences of self-care; (II) the health-illness transition among adult persons in this context was interpreted as contentment at being part of the active and conscious process towards transcending into a new state of living, in which the individual and the technology were in tune. The successful and healthy transition experience was characterized by human growth and becoming; (III) living with a family member who is using advanced medical technology at home was interpreted as meaning rhythmical patterns of being clos