The Effect of a Health Belief Enhancement Program on Stroke Prevention Behaviors in Individuals at Risk of Stroke

Abstract

This quasi-experimental study aimed to examine the effect of a health belief enhancement program on stroke prevention behavior in individuals at risk of stroke. Samples included 70 individuals diagnosed with at least one of the followings: hypertension, diabetes, or hyperlipidemia and received services at the Krachod subdistrict health promotion hospital, Mueang district, Nakhon Ratchasima province. The samples were randomly assigned into two groups of 35 each: an experimental group, which received the health belief enhancement program, and a control group which received regular care. The health belief program focused on six areas: perceived susceptibility, perceived severity, perceived benefits, perceived barriers, self-efficacy and cues to action for stroke prevention behaviors. Activities included stroke risk self-assessments, stroke educations, group sharing activities, and home visits conducted over a 10-week period. The data collection instrument was a stroke prevention behavior questionnaire, with a content validity of 1.00 and a Cronbach's alpha coefficient of 0.86. Data were analyzed using frequencies, percentages, means, standard deviations, paired t-tests, and independent t-tests.

The results showed that, after the intervention, the experimental group showed significantly higher mean scores for stroke prevention behavior compared to before the experiment (p<0.001) and as compared to those from the control group (p<0.001). These findings indicate that the health belief enhancement program effectively promotes stroke prevention behavior in individuals at risk of stroke.