T Nasrabadi - PhD, Nursing Department, Tehran Medical Sciences Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
A Qoli - MSc, Nursing Department, Tehran Medical Sciences Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran

Aims The most important causes for mortality rate and poor quality of life in cardiovascularpatients arise from insufficient and inappropriate self-care. This study aimed to examine theeffect of an educational self-care program on awareness and performance in patients withCoronary syndrome.Materials & Methods This is an experimental study conducted in hospitals affiliated withQom University of medical science. 70 Patients were randomly assigned to experiment(n=35) and control (n=35) groups. Awareness and performance data were collected throughinterviewed questionnaire and observation. Then the patients in experiment group received2 educational sessions each lasting 20 minutes during the hospital stay, and also were givenan educational booklet review, while control patients received routine care. Data on allpatients’ awareness and performance was again collected one month later. The awarenessand performance of two groups were compared using Wilcoxon and Mann-Whitney U tests.Findings The difference between two groups in awareness area was -5.39 (p<0.001) andin performance area was -19.49 after intervention (p<0.001). The mean of changes of totalawareness score of self-care was 0.57±1.14 in control group (p<0.004) and 8.40±9.39 inexperimental group (p<0.001). The mean of self-care performance scores has been increasedabout 32.13±6.32 in experiment group (p<0.001) and the improving self-care performanceof control group was 0.98±1.11 (p<0.001;).Conclusion The application of an educational self-care program raises the awareness andimproves the performance of the patients with coronary syndrome.

Patient Education; Self-Care; Coronary Syndrome; Coronary Disease; Heart Diseases