The effect of a self-management intervention on health care utilization in a sample of chronically ill older patients in The Netherlands

To the editor In the Netherlands, the combination of an aging population and increasing cut-backs in health care will result in a growing burden on the health care system [1]. Studies on self-management programmes, however, have demonstrated a significant reduction in health care utilization among participants in such programmes [2–14]. The Chronic Disease Self-Management Program (CDSMP) of Lorig et al . is such a self-management programme [4,7,8]. Although studies showed that participating in this programme can reduce health care utilization, this programme has not yet been evaluated in the N... Mehr ...