Effects of Support Groups for Patients with Coronary Artery Disease in Amphoe Mueang, Pethchaburi Province - ผลการใช้กลุ่มเพื่อนช่วยเหลือผู้ป้วยโรคหัวใจขาดเลือด ในเขตอำเภอเมือง จังหวัดเพชรบุรี

Abstract

           Coronary artery disease is a chronic and incurable disease, the symptoms of which can be controlled through appropriate and sustained self-care. The assistance of patients in self-care agencyis necessary and very important. This quasi -experimental study used a one group pre-post test design to evaluate the result of the use of support groups with respect to knowledge, health behavior, and quality of life of coronary artery disease patients. The sample was 32 coronary artery disease patients in Tambon Chong Sakae, Tambon Rai Som and Tambon Thong Chai in Mueang District, Petchaburi Province. The study was implemented from February to July, 2011. Instruments included 1) Support Group Activity Chart 2) Survey of knowledge, health behavior and quality of life  as well as patient satisfaction. Reliability for the survey of each group was 0.77, 0.80, 0.80 and 0.87 respectively. There were group support activities in week 1, 3, and 7 with evaluation of knowledge, behavior and quality of life in week 1 and home visit in week 5. The same evaluation was repeated in week 10 as well as satisfaction in group support activity. The data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and paired t-test. The mean score of knowledge, behavior and quality of life before and after group support activities were 11.97 and 16.44 (p < 0.001), 76.50 and 89.19 (p < 0.001), 84.44 and 86.28 (p < 0.001), repectively. Patients’ satisfaction was relatively at a higher level. The benefit derived from using support groups especially was knowledge and the ability of patients to care for themselves based on the resource and experience sharing of group participants themselves, which was likely to be applicable to one’s problems. The health behavior of the patients enabled them to live as comfortably as possible.

Key words: support groups, knowledge, health behavior, quality of life, coronary artery disease patient