Effects of self-care intervention using a mobile instant messenger on hemodialysis patient’s knowledge, self-efficacy, self-care behavior and physiological index

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of self-care intervention using a mobile instant messenger on hemodialysis patient`s knowledge, self-efficacy, self-care behavior and physio-logical indices. Methods: A non-equivalent control group pretest-posttest design was used. The par-ticipants consisted of 38 patients who had a regular hemodialysis of Seoul National University Hospi-tal. They were assigned to one of two groups; an experimental group (n = 19) that had self-care inter-vention for 8 weeks and a control groups (n = 19) that had routine hemodialysis treatment. The data collection was conducted from September 5, 2022 to October 29, 2022. The date were analyzed by Chi-square test, Independent t-test, and Fisher`s exact test using SPSS Win 29 program. Results: There was a significant difference in self-efficacy (t = 3.42, p = .002) between experimental and control groups. There was no significant differences between the two groups in knowledge (t = 0.80, p = .428), self-care behavior (t = 0.09, p = .929), potassium (t = -0.82 p = .416), phosphorus (t = -0.03, p = .974), weight gain (t = 0.16, p = .867). Conclusion: Based on above results, it was verified that self-care in-tervention in this study was an effective indicator in improving the self-efficacy. There is a requirement to formulate comprehensive interventions capable of enhancing various indicators.