Peer support with a nurse-managed intervention and compliance after a cardiac event
This pretest-posttest quasi-experimental study was conducted to examine the hypothesis that cardiac clients who received peer support, with a nurse-managed intervention, had increased compliance to medical regimen when compared to cardiac clients who did not receive peer support. Compliance was measured on the five subscales of the Health Behavior Scale (HBS). The subscales included: diet, exercise, medications, stress modification and smoking reduction/cessation. The Theory of Reasoned Action served as a theoretical guide for this study. Eighty-eight cardiac clients in Phase II cardiac rehabilitation were in this study. Participants were randomly assigned to either a control group or an experimental group. Data were collected on the groups twice: (a) upon admission to the rehabilitation program and (b) six months later. The experimental group (n = 43) received peer support in the form of a once a month telephone call for six months from a cardiac peer in Phase III cardiac rehabilitation; whereas, participants in the control group (n = 45) did not receive the intervention. Data were analyzed using independent and dependent t-tests. Between groups, the experimental group had a significant increase in compliance to stress modification ( p = .018). However, there were no significant differences between groups on diet, exercise, smoking or medications. Within the groups, the control group had a significant decrease in compliance to diet (p = .035), exercise (p = .023) and stress modification ( p = .023). Neither group had significant changes on smoking or medications and the experimental group had no changes overall. Additional findings on genders were analyzed using two-tailed independent t-tests, females had increased compliance to diet (p = .045) but no other behaviors were significantly different between genders. Data supported a logical conclusion that peer support played a crucial role in compliance to medical regimen. Compliance scores were inclined to decrease in as short of time as six months and gender appeared to play a role in compliance to medical regimen.
Health and environmental sciences, Cardiac, Compliance, Intervention, Nurse-managed, Peer support
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