Bmc Fam Pract
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Randomized Controlled Trial
The effect of problem-based learning in patient education after an event of CORONARY heart disease--a randomised study in PRIMARY health care: design and methodology of the COR-PRIM study.
Even though there is convincing evidence that self-care, such as regular exercise and/or stopping smoking, alters the outcomes after an event of coronary heart disease (CHD), risk factors remain. Outcomes can improve if core components of secondary prevention programmes are structurally and pedagogically applied using adult learning principles e.g. problem-based learning (PBL). Until now, most education programs for patients with CHD have not been based on such principles. The basic aim is to discover whether PBL provided in primary health care (PHC) has long-term effects on empowerment and self-care after an event of CHD. ⋯ We expect that the 1-year PBL-patient education will improve patients' beliefs, self-efficacy and empowerment to achieve self-care goals significantly more than one year of standardised home-sent patient information. The assumption is that PBL will reduce cardiovascular events in the long-term and will also be cost-effective compared to controls. Further, the knowledge obtained from this study may contribute to improving patients' ability to handle self-care, and furthermore, may reduce the number of patients having subsequent CHD events in Sweden.