The structure of self-care in a group of elderly people.

According to Orem's self-care deficit theory of nursing, the structure of self-care consists of self-care agency balanced by therapeutic self-care demand. Different conditioning factors constitute these two constructs. The aim of this study was to investigate through secondary analysis the structure of self-care in a group of elderly. Data were originally collected from a total of 125 randomly chosen elderly individuals (65+ years of age) in Sweden by means of a mailed questionnaire. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to show that self-care agency was totally and significantly balanced against therapeutic self-care demand and explained by five conditioning factors.