Impact of Self-care Education on Self-efficacy and Quality of Life of Late Adolescents With Congenital Heart Disease

Background: Self-care of adolescents with congenital heart disease (CHD) is one of the challenges of the health care system. CHD is a common chronic disease that affects the quality of life (QoL) and self-efficacy of adolescents. This study compares the effectiveness of self-care education by face-to-face method and video clip (VC) on self-efficacy and QoL in late adolescents with CHD. Methods: This research was a non-randomized clinical trial. A total of 111 late adolescents aged 18 to 21 years with CHD referred to Rajaie Cardiovascular, Medical, and Research Center in Tehran, Iran, were recruited by convenience sampling and non-randomly assigned to either control, face-to-face (F2F), or VC groups (37 subjects in each group). The F2F group participated in two educational sessions (each lasted 35-45 minutes) with an interval of one week, and the VC group received a 90-minute video to watch at home. The study data were collected before (T1) and two months after the intervention (T2), using the Generalized Self-Efficacy (GSE) scale and World Health Organization’s Quality of Life Questionnaire (WHOQOL-BREF) and analyzed in SPSS version 19 software using the Chi-square test, Fisher test, paired t test, Scheffé test, and ANOVA. The significance level was set at P 0.05. Results: Before the intervention, demographic variables, self-efficacy, and QoL were not significantly different in the three groups. The self-efficacy significantly increased in the F2F (P 0.004) and VC groups (P 0.031) at T2. Furthermore, QoL dimensions significantly improved in the F2F and VC groups (P 0.05), except for the environment dimension (P 0.05). Conclusion: Self-care education through F2F and VC significantly affects the self-efficacy and QoL of late adolescents. Such educational programs can greatly reduce the possible complications of the disease by empowering this group.