The Effect of a Self-Care Training Program on Adherence to a Therapeutic Regimen in Veterans with Spinal Cord Injury: Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial

Background and Aim: Non-adherence to a treatment regimen is an obstacle to achieving therapeutic goals. This is a problem in patients with chronic conditions, especially in those with spinal cord injuries. This study aimed to determine the effect of a self-care training program on adherence to a therapeutic regimen in veterans with spinal cord injury.
Methods: This was a randomized controlled clinical trial with a pretest-posttest design. The study population was veterans with paraplegic spinal cord injury, who referred to Khatamalanbia hospital Tehran, Iran, in the second half of 2017. A total of 60 veterans were selected based on inclusion criteria and a purposive sampling method, and divided into two groups of intervention and control randomly by using a table of random numbers. For the intervention group, six sessions of 60‒45 minutes of self-care education were performed. The control group received only routine training. Patients completed the Modanlou Adherence to Therapeutic Regimen questionnaire before, and one week and one month after intervention. Data were analyzed by SPSS19 software.
 Results: Two interventional and control groups were matched in demographic characteristics. The mean Modanlou Adherence to Therapeutic Regimen Score was 44.31±5.42 in the intervention group, and 43.40±3.96 in the control group before intervention, which increased to 47.63±2.64 and 43.63±3.88 one week, and 51.25±3.75 and 43.66±3.69 one month after implementation of the intervention. This difference was significant in the intervention group (p≤0.001).
 Conclusion: This self-care program training is effective in increasing adherence to a therapeutic regimen in veterans with spinal cord injury. Therefore, it can be suggested that nurses should recommend self-care programs used in this study as a simple, non-invasive, low-cost, and effective way to increase compliance with a treatment regimen in veterans with spinal cord injury.