investigating the effect of implementing orem’s self-care model on the quality of life of patients with myocardial infarction: a quasi-experimental intervention-control study

Background and objective: myocardial infarction (mi) presents one of the most common cardiovascular disorders and a progressive debilitating condition. patients with mi experience low quality of life (qol) mainly due to the devastating complications of this condition, and it is necessary to upgrade qol and self-care among these patients. self-care training is one of the ways to improve qol in these patients. therefore, the present study aimed to investigate the effects of implementing orem’s self-care model on the qol of patients experiencing mi hospitalized in the intensive care unit (icu).methods: the present research employed a quasi-experimental randomized pre-post design conducted from february 2021 to august 2022. the research population included 70 patients with mi hospitalized in the icu of the shahid mostafa khomeini hospital of ilam city, eligible patients according to entry and exit criteria were divided into the intervention and control groups. data were gathered using a questionnaire consisting of three parts: 1-demographic information, 2- needs assessment based on the orem model, and 3- the macnew heart disease health-related quality of life. the intervention group received 4 sessions of self-care training (30-45 minutes each session) via in-person, virtual, and phone-based methods and handed a self-care training booklet. participants in both groups filled out the qol and self-care questionnaires before and two weeks and two months after the intervention by face-to-face visits or phone/virtual interviews. the data collected were analyzed using spss v.26 software by calculating frequencies, means, and standard deviations. the repeated-measure analysis of covariance was utilized to compare the two study groups before and after the intervention.results: the results showed no significant difference in the mean qol score between the intervention and control groups before the intervention (p-value = 0.05); however, after the intervention, the two groups showed a significant difference in terms of the mean score of qol (p-value = 0.001).conclusion: the results of the present study showed that orem self-care training could effectively improve the qol of patients with mi, suggesting this approach as an effective non-pharmaceutical approach to upgrade qol in these patients.