Cultivating Self-Motivation, Lifestyle Modification and Emotional Resilience in Elderly Patients with Multimorbidity: A Path to Successful Self-Management

The population of older adults is a global problem that poses a serious threat to mankind.However, the aging process is inevitable.Aging contributes to a high burden of multimorbidity worldwide, particularly among the elderly.Multimorbidity can lead to a decreased quality of life, increased healthcare utilization, and higher mortality rates.Effective self-management is crucial for individuals with multimorbidity to manage their conditions, reduce healthcare costs and improve their quality of life.Nonetheless, self-management can be challenging for elderly patients.They need to employ selfmotivation, lifestyle modification, and emotional resilience to promote self-management.This study aims to explore the perceived benefit of cultivating self-motivation, lifestyle modification and emotional resilience among elderly patients with multimorbidity, which will facilitate improvement of health outcomes and quality of life.A qualitative interpretative phenomenological study using in-depth interview guide with 30 purposively sampled elderly patients with multimorbidity was conducted.The study took place at the University Teaching Hospitals -Adult Hospital in Lusaka, Zambia.Interpretative phenomenological analysis was used to analyse the data.Three themes that included selfmotivation, lifestyle modification, and emotional resilience were developed.The study concluded that elderly multimorbidity patients need to develop a positive attitude towards self-management if they are to achieve the best health outcomes and improve their quality of life.Novelty was demonstrated by this study being one of its kind that seeks to cultivate self-motivation, lifestyle modification and emotional resilience to strengthen patient participation in their own care.