Self-care – has DIY gone too far?

[摘要] Self-care, ‘the care taken by individuals towards their own health and wellbeing’,1 has always been commonplace. People have always made decisions about whether to attempt to manage their own symptoms, seek advice from lay networks, or go to a professional, be that a ‘bloodletter’, apothecary or herbalist. And self-care has continued to be a usual first step since the emergence of modern health care: for example, parents use thermometers to decide if their child needs a day off school, women use home tests for pregnancy, and Porteous et al report in this issue that members of the public prefer self-care to manage symptoms of minor illness.2 All these activities seem appropriate: patients and clinicians would probably agree that it is not desirable for waiting rooms to be filled with people requiring paracetamol or a sticking plaster.

[学科分类] 卫生学