The role of patients’ empowerment in enhancing the quality of life of chronic patients is undeniable and its importance in health policy making and health care is increasing day by day. However, no guidelines have been defined to empower people with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). The purpose of this study was to identify the dimensions of IBD patients’ empowerment. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 26 participants who were purposefully selected from 2 IBD clinics in Tehran and Shiraz cities to gain diversity in the clinical and demographic characteristics. The data were analyzed based on the Granheim and Landman’s content analysis method. According to the result of this study, the empowerment of IBD patients is composed of five dimensions including self-care, psychological coping with disease, social interaction skills, disease-specific health literacy and self-evaluation. The participants’ most emphasis was on self-care and psychological coping dimensions. These findings can be used as a basis for educational interventions toward IBD patients’ empowerment. More researches are needed to explore factors affecting the empowerment processes of IBD patients.

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确定炎症性肠病患者赋权的维度：一项定性研究

不可否认的是，赋予患者权力在改善慢性患者生活质量中的作用日益重要，并且其在健康政策制定和医疗保健中的重要性也在日益提高。但是，尚未定义任何指南来增强发炎性肠病（IBD）的能力。这项研究的目的是确定IBD患者赋权的维度。对来自德黑兰和设拉子两座IBD诊所的26名参与者进行了半结构化访谈，以期获得临床和人口统计学特征的多样性。基于Granheim和Landman的内容分析方法对数据进行了分析。根据这项研究的结果，IBD患者的赋权包括五个方面，包括自我护理，心理应对疾病，社交互动技能，特定疾病的健康素养和自我评估。参与者最强调的是自我保健和心理应对方面。这些发现可以用作对IBD患者赋权的教育干预的基础。需要更多的研究来探索影响IBD患者赋权过程的因素。