Health Education Program for Promoting Self-Care Behavior of Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting Patients*

Abstract

This quasi-experimental research investigated the effectiveness of a health education program
that applied Self-Efficacy theory and social support for promoting self-care behavior of coronary
artery bypass grafting patients at Chulalongkorn Hospital. The total of 43 patients were grouped into 2
groups, experimental and comparison groups with 21 and 22 patients respectively. The experimental
group participated in the health education developed while the comparison group participated in
regular health education activities. The experiment lasted 36 weeks. The data collection was done by
using the structured interview and the practice-observation form developed, and data were analyzed
by computing frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, Paired Sample t-test, Independent ttest and ANOVA. The research results indicated that after the experiment, significantly higher mean
scores regarding knowledge, perceived self-efficacy to perform self-care behavior and perceived
benefits of self-care behavior after coronary artery bypass grafting of the experimental group was
found compared to before the experimentation and of the comparison group (p<0.001). In regard to
post-operation behavior the mean score of the experimental group in ICU, significantly higher than the
mean score of the comparison group (p<0.001) and for the self-care behavior after coronary artery
bypass grafting between group of the 3 stages, before discharging, 1 week and 5 weeks after
discharging, the experimental group’s behavior mean scores were significantly higher than those of
the comparison group (p<0.001). But, it was found that self-care behavior of all 3 stages of within the
experimental group were correct, whereas no significant difference was found among the three
stages. Suggestion of this study, this type of program can be applied to coronary artery bypass
grafting patients.