A Self-Determination Theory-Based Cardiovascular Disease Prevention Program for Community-Dwelling Middle-Aged Women

To develop and evaluate the effectiveness of a cardiovascular disease (CVD) prevention education program based on the self-determination theory (SDT) for middle-aged women living in the community.

A quasi-experimental, non-equivalent control group pretest-posttest design was used to assess the intervention's effectiveness.

We recruited 59 middle-aged women who visited two community healthcare centers in City B, South Korea. The experimental group (n = 26) received a CVD prevention program, while the control group (n = 33) received only CVD prevention education materials and one general phone consultation. The program's strategy was to meet basic psychological needs, physical health, and mental health related to CVD prevention. The 10 educational sessions included eight face-to-face and two online education sessions, and there were four telephone counseling sessions. All data were analyzed using SPSS version 26.0, independent t-test, and Mann-Whitney's U test.

Findings showed a significant difference between the experimental and control groups in autonomy (p < .001), competence (p < .001), relatedness (p = .004), awareness of myocardial infarction (MI) warning symptoms (p = .001), awareness of stroke warning symptoms (p < .001), health behavior practice (p < .001), loneliness and social isolation (p < .001), aging anxiety (p = .001), and resilient coping (p < .001).

The SDT-based CVD prevention education program significantly improved physical and mental health and basic psychological need fulfillment among middle-aged women in the community.

Community health nurses should consider implementing theory-based health education programs that foster autonomy, competence, and relatedness to promote sustained behavioral change and reduce CVD risk among underserved populations.