Relationships among disease knowledge, social support, anxiety and self‐efficacy in patients after total knee arthroplasty: A chain mediating effect

AIM: To explore relationships among disease knowledge, social support, anxiety and self‐efficacy in patients after total knee arthroplasty (TKA) through a chain mediating model. DESIGN: A cross‐sectional study. METHODS: A total of 282 post‐TKA patients from three tertiary hospitals in Jinan, Shandong Province are conveniently chosen as the subjects of this study. We use established scales to assess relevant variables and apply the PROCESS 3.5 software of SPSS to construct a chain mediating effect. RESULTS: The results of this study found that disease knowledge can directly affect patients' self‐efficacy (β = 0.466, t = 5.227, p < 0.001). Social support and anxiety play a significant mediating role between disease knowledge and self‐efficacy, with an overall mediating effect value of 0.257. After including social support and anxiety, the direct effect value of disease knowledge on self‐efficacy is 0.210. CONCLUSION: Disease knowledge in TKA patients can significantly and positively predict their post‐operative self‐efficacy. Between disease knowledge and self‐efficacy, there is not only an independent mediating effect of social support and anxiety but also a chain mediating effect. PATIENT OR PUBLIC CONTRIBUTION: The patients were actively involved in the data collection for this study.