Effects of Self-Management Intervention Programs Based on the Health Belief Model and Planned Behavior Theory on Self-Management Behavior and Quality of Life in Middle-Aged Stroke Patients

OBJECTIVES: To study the effect of self-management intervention programs based on the health belief model and planned behavior theory on self-management behavior and quality of life in middle-aged stroke patients. Most of the intervention studies on the self-management of middle-aged stroke patients focus on traditional Chinese medicine nursing and continuous nursing, lacking theoretical support. In particular, there is a lack of interventions based on the integration of two or more theories. METHOD: The middle-aged stroke patients were divided into the control group and the intervention group according to the disease area. A total of 70 patients were included, and 35 patients were included in the control group and the intervention group, respectively. The control group received routine neurological treatment and health education during hospitalization and continued to receive routine health education for 3 months after discharge. On this basis, the intervention group received an intervention program based on an integrated model of health beliefs and planned behavior theory, including 3 health education sessions during hospitalization and 3 months of postdischarge health education. A self-administered stroke general information questionnaire was used to collect basic information on patients' age, gender, and comorbidities. The Stroke Self-Management Behavior Rating Scale and Stroke-Specific Quality-of-Life Scale (SS-QOL) were used to evaluate the management behavior and quality of life of the patients in both groups before and after the intervention. RESULTS: Before the intervention, there was no statistically significant difference between the two groups in terms of self-management score, quality of life total score, and scores of each dimension (P > 0.05). At different periods after the intervention, the total score of self-management, total score of quality of life, and scores of each dimension were significantly higher in both groups than before the intervention (P < 0.05). In particular, the self-management and quality of life scores of the intervention group were higher than those of the control group at 1 and 3 months after the intervention (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: The self-management intervention scheme based on the integrated model of health belief and planned behavior theory is beneficial to improve the self-management ability and quality of life of stroke patients. It provides basis for clinical nurses to further improve the self-management ability and quality of life of stroke patients. Our findings may also serve as a reference for caregivers in other countries to improve the self-management and quality of life of stroke patients.