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| Ranking |
Evidence-Based Practice |
| Description |
The Women to Women Project was created to provide women with chronic illnesses health information, as well as increase their psychosocial health with the use of a computer based intervention. The project targets rural, middle-aged women diagnosed with chronic conditions. Women who live in rural areas were targeted because their geographic isolation made them even more susceptible to depression, stress, and loneliness. The women participate in the program for 22 weeks and are exposed to a specialized online network for support with adapting to life with a chronic condition. Using online self-support groups, as well as instructional lessons on how to access health information via the internet, the women are better enabled to deal with the depression, loneliness, and stress associated with chronic illnesses. They have access to an online peer-led support group and health teaching units. A chat room, as well as a mailbox, is available 24 hours a day for the women to contact other participants or the research team. The Women to Women study included participants with a range of chronic conditions which require constant maintenance. Because of this, being able to adapt to living with a chronic disease is very essential. A strong sense of self-efficacy, self-esteem, empowerment, and social support can help battle depression, stress, and loneliness, which decrease poor health outcomes. |
| Goal / Mission |
Women to Women aims to provide social support for chronically ill rural women to positively affect social support, self-esteem, empowerment, self-efficacy in order to decrease stress, depression, and loneliness to improve one’s adaptation to living with a chronic disease. |
| Results / Accomplishments |
The Women to Women project was a case control study with 120 participants (43 intervention, 57 control). Participants were limited to women ages 35-65, living in rural areas with a chronic disease. Participants were mailed questionnaires to assess the psychosocial health indicators: social support, self-esteem, empowerment, self-efficacy, stress, depression, and loneliness. The study found that self-esteem is significantly positively associated with social support, empowerment, and self-efficacy (p's = 0.01). Stress, loneliness, and depression were negatively associated with self-esteem, social support, empowerment, and self-efficacy (p's = 0.01). Positive psychosocial factors increase over the time with the intervention when compared to the control group, including self-esteem (p = 0.016), social support (p = 0.038), and empowerment (p = 0.016). For both groups, there were significant increases over time for depression (0.028), loneliness (0.012), and stress (0.005). There were no significant differences between the groups for these factors. |
| Categories |
Health / Other Chronic Diseases
Health / Women's Health
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| Organization(s) |
Montana State University College of Nursing |
| Source |
Nursing Research |
| Date of Publication |
2006 |
| Date of Implementation |
2000 |
| Location |
Country: USA |
| Primary Contact |
Wade Hill
College of Nursing
Montana State University
MT 59717
whill@montana.edu
http://www.montana.edu/wwwnu/
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| For more details |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC148...
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| Target Audience |
Women |
| Submitted By |
Cherry Nguyen, Vanessa Lam, Vivian Yu - UC Berkeley School of Public Health |
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