Health self-management and its relevance on family function among elderly coronary heart disease patients in Hebei province

Objective To investigate the prevalence of health self-management behavior in elderly coronary heart disease (CHD) patients and its correlation with family function.Methods Multi-stage stratified cluster sampling was used to recruit 6 173 old residents aged 60 years and above from urban and rural areas in three municipalities of Hebei province to investigate the prevalence of health self-management and family function in the participants.Results Among 6 173 participants,1 408 (22.8%) were identified with CHD.Among the CHD patients,the average overall score for health self-management was 3.83±0.59,with the average health self-management domain scores of 3.53±0.77 for behavior,3.68±0.80 for environment,and 4.24±0.55 for cognition,respectively.The results of univariate analyses showed that the factors significantly correlated with the CHD patients' overall score of health self-management included residential area,education,with what kind of person living together,concern of children,communication with children,being supervised for unhealthy behaviors by family members,having physical examination arranged by children,being reminded of visiting a doctor by family members,and family functioning (P<0.05 for all).Multivariate analyses revealed that having physical examination arranged by children (β=0.190),communication with children (β=0.185),education (β=0.169),family functioning (β=0.164),residential area (β=-0.125),and being supervised for unhealthy behaviors by family members (β=0.055)were the influencing factors of health self-management among the elderly CHD patients (P<0.05 for all).Conclusion Health self-management behavior needs to be improved and family support to the health self-management should be promoted among elderly patients with coronary heart disease in urban and rural areas of Hebei province.