Effects of a Self-Efficacy Enhancement Program on Self-Care Behaviors of Older Adults in the Community

Abstract

 The present quasi-experimental study with a pretest-posttest two-group design aimed to examine the effects of a self-efficacy enhancement program on the self-care health behaviors of older adults in the community. The sample comprised 50 older adults aged 60 years and above who met the inclusion criteria. They were selected by simple random sampling from two subdistricts, with 25 participants in each group. The experimental group received the self-efficacy enhancement program, and the control group received standard health education. The data collection instrument employed was a self-care behavior questionnaire for older adults, which exhibited a content validity index (CVI) of 1.00 and a Cronbach’s alpha reliability coefficient of 0.85. The collected data were then subjected to a thorough analysis using both descriptive statistics and t-tests.
The findings indicated that following the implementation of the program, the experimental group exhibited significantly elevated mean scores in terms of self-care health behaviors when compared to their pre-intervention scores and the control group (t = -7.417, p < .001 and t = 5.517, p < .001, respectively). These findings suggest that a program emphasizing learning through the successful experiences of real-life role models and videos, with skill training and continuous verbal reinforcement, constitutes a practical approach that community health nurses can apply to promote health behaviors among older adults in ways appropriate to their contexts.