Self-management in patients with coronary heart disease after stent implantation at the long-term stage: a cross-sectional study

Background: The self-management of risk reduction in coronary heart disease (CHD) plays an important role in mediating health outcomes following percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), but there is a lack of research on self-management status in the long-term stage after PCI in Chinese patients with CHD. Hence, this study investigated the self-management status in the long-term stage (>2 years) after PCI in patients with CHD. The results could provide a reference for the development of targeted interventions. Methods: This cross-sectional study administered a questionnaire survey on self-management in patients with CHD who underwent PCI (convenience sampling) and had been discharged from our medical center for >2 years, excluding the patients with severe hepatic or renal dysfunction or tumor. Data about cardiovascular risk factors, including body mass index (BMI), total cholesterol (TC), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), and self-management status, were collected. The Coronary Artery Disease Self-Management Scale (CSMS) was used to assess patient self-management. Results: The total CSMS score was 69.5 +/- 11.0, suggesting that the patients' self-management level was average. The scores for life management, emotion management, and disease management were 87.4 +/- 9.7, 77.6 +/- 7.7, and 57.5 +/- 11.0, respectively. Significant differences were noted in the patients' self-management scores according to occupation, education level, residence, and sex (all P<0.05). The self-management ability of farmers, primary school-educated, and male participants was relatively low. Moreover, cardiovascular risk factors were positively correlated with the emotion and disease management scores. Conclusions: CHD patients' self-management status in the long-term stage after PCI was moderate or poor. Medical staff should provide targeted guidance and education (for example, effective guidance on smoking cessation, first aid training, repeated disease education, and use of electronic devices to improve medication compliance) to improve the self-management level for the secondary prevention of CHD.