Self-efficacy following the self-management training program in patients with Sickle Cell Disease (24 weeks of follow-up)

Patients with sickle cell disease suffer from various complications during their lifetime and have to adapt themselves to this chronic disease through promoting their self-management and preventing complications of the disease. Chronic disease self-management programs are a combination of strategies that increase self-efficacy and promote self-management behaviors. The present study aimed to determine the effectiveness of self-management programs on self-efficacy in patients with sickle cell disease. In the present quasi-experimental study، 53 patients with sickle cell disease admitted to the Thalassemia Clinic of Shafa Hospital of Ahwaz entered the study through the census method. The self-management program was implemented in two individual training sessions، a large group training session and two small group training sessions over 12 weeks. The patients'' self-efficacy was assessed before the intervention، at the twelfth week and then the thirty-sixth week using the sickle cell self-efficacy scale (SCSES). Data were analyzed in SPSS/19 using descriptive statistics، including the chi-squared test، the t-test and the repeated measures test. The repeated measures test and the analysis of variance showed a significant difference between the overall scores and the scores obtained for the self-efficacy sub-groups in the twelfth week and the thirty-sixth week following the intervention compared to before (P<0. 001). The results of this study showed that self-management interventions are effective in promoting self-efficacy in patients with sickle cell disease. The use of self-management programs is therefore recommended for changing behaviors and promoting self-efficacy in these patients.