title: A randomized controlled trial of the effectiveness of a self-help psychoeducation programme on outcomes of outpatients with coronary heart disease: study protocol.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To develop and examine the effectiveness of a home-based self-help psychoeducation programme on health-related quality of life, stress level, anxiety and depression symptoms, self-efficacy, cardiac risk factors and health service use of outpatients with coronary heart disease.
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  Hospital-based cardiac rehabilitation programmes have been shown to improve, effectively, the quality of life of patients with coronary heart disease. However, a majority of these patients do not participate in these programmes, while those who do enrol in these programmes fail to complete the programmes.
  
  
  METHODS
  Randomized controlled trial with repeated measures.
  
  
  METHODS
  This study was approved and received the grant in July 2013. A convenience sample of 128 coronary heart disease outpatients will be recruited from a tertiary hospital in Singapore. Participants are randomly assigned to the 4-week experimental group and will participate in the programme or the control group who will not participate in the programme. The outcome measures include the: 12-item Short Form Health Survey, Perceived Stress Scale, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale and General Self-Efficacy Scale. Data will be collected at baseline, then 4 and 16 weeks from baseline. At the end, a process evaluation will be conducted to assess the acceptability, strengths and weaknesses of our programme based on the participants' perspectives.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our programme offers coronary heart disease patients an additional option to the existing cardiac rehabilitative services in Singapore hospitals. It aims to help them manage their disease effectively by reducing cardiac risk factors and improve their health-related quality of life and psychological well-being.
authors.affiliation: Alice Lee Centre for Nursing Studies, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore.
authors.forename: Wenru
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Violeta
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Lopez
authors.forename: Aloysius
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Chow
authors.forename: Sally Wai-Chi
authors.initials: SW
authors.lastname: Chan
authors.forename: Karis Kin Fong
authors.initials: KK
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.forename: Hong-Gu
authors.initials: HG
authors.lastname: He
mesh_terms: D003327:Coronary Disease / Q000451:nursing* / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006701:Home Nursing / Q000193:education; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D017145:Models, Educational; D010045:Outpatients / Q000193:education* / Q000523:psychology*; D010353:Patient Education as Topic; D011788:Quality of Life; D012648:Self Care / Q000523:psychology*; D012846:Singapore; D016896:Treatment Outcome
keywords: coronary heart disease; health-related quality of life; nursing; psychological well-being; self-help psychoeducation