Cardiac Self-Efficacy, Social Support, and Adherence to Healthy Lifestyle Behaviors Among Patients With Coronary Artery Disease

Introduction: Adherence to secondary prevention is important for patients with coronary artery disease. Healthcare providers must identify the factors that affect secondary coronary artery disease prevention to formulate and execute strategies aimed at enhancing patient adherence. Objective: To assess healthy lifestyle behaviors among patients with coronary artery disease and examine associations among individual characteristics, cardiac self-efficacy, social support, and healthy lifestyle adherence. Methods: A correlational, cross-sectional design was employed. Two hundred and nineteen patients with coronary artery disease were selected as a convenience sample from the cardiac clinics of three large Jordanian hospitals. Descriptive and multivariate linear regression analyses were employed. Results: Coronary artery disease patients reported a moderate cardiac self-efficacy level, a high perceived social support level, and moderate adherence to healthy lifestyle behaviors. Multiple regression analysis indicated that smokers demonstrated significantly lower adherence to healthy lifestyle behaviors compared with non-smokers. (β = -0.21, p < .01). Meanwhile, patients with comorbidities (β = 0.18, p < .01), had received coronary care education (β = 0.20, p < .01), perceived more social support (β = 0.15, p < .05), and had a higher level of perceived cardiac self-efficacy (β = 0.41, p < .001) were significantly associated with healthy lifestyle adherence. Conclusion: Further research into intervention strategies is necessary to enhance patients' understanding of coronary care, boost their self-efficacy, and strengthen social support, ultimately leading to improved adherence behaviors among individuals with coronary artery disease.