Predictors of Self-Management in Patients with Coronary Artery Diseases

Chronic diseases like coronary artery diseases need special self-care behaviors to be manageable. Self-management in chronic diseases includes the adoption of a healthy lifestyle and has a significant role in treatment. Variety of factors are identified to be related with self-management. This study was conducted to determine self-management predictors in patients with coronary artery diseases. This was a descriptive-correlation study. It is conducted on 312 patients with coronary artery disease visiting the cardiovascular Clinic of Shahid Madani Teaching hospital in Tabriz, Iran. The subjects were selected using convenience sampling. The research instrument included the self-management questionnaire, used after assuring its validity and reliability. Data was analyzed with descriptive and regression analyses in SPSS16. About half of the participants (54.7%) have good self-management. Results from regression showed that predictors of self-management variance were previous disease (F-(4,F-267)=0.363, p-value=0.024) and type of treatment (F-(4,F-267)=3.249, p-value=0.039). These variables could predict the variance of self-management to 14%. By generalization of the results to the main population, the predictive variables could explain about 6% of self-management variance. Based on the results, more efforts are needed to promote the selfmanagement of all patients. In addition, encouraging the self-management skills before the onset of the disease and at the first stage of prevention is suggesting.