An Educational Intervention to Improve Quality of Life: A Single-blind Randomized Controlled Trial on the Quality of Life in Patients with Acute Coronary Syndrome

Coronary artery disease is one of the most common cardiovascular diseases leading to disability and significant complications in patients. This also imposes burdens on families and societies. This study aimed to investigate the effect of self-care education on the life quality of patients with the acute coronary syndrome.

This clinical trial was conducted on 70 patients with coronary artery disease who were randomly divided into intervention (n=35) and control (n=35) groups. At the beginning of the study, both groups were asked to complete a 36-item Short Form (SF-36) survey of quality of life. Subsequently, the intervention group received three 30-45-min self-care training sessions with a one-day interval within a week. Immediately after the intervention and two months later, the patients completed the quality of life questionnaire. Finally, the data were analyzed in SPSS software (version 20) using independent t-test, Chi-square, and repeated measures analysis of variance.

The mean scores of quality of life were 45.35 and 45.62 in the intervention and control groups before training, respectively. Immediately after the intervention and two months later, the corresponding values were 66.34 and 64.81 in the intervention group, which showed a significant difference between the groups in this regard (P=0.01).

According to the results, self-care education can increase the quality of life among patients with coronary artery disease. Moreover, it can be used as one of the non-pharmacological and effective methods for the treatment of coronary artery disease.