Objectives: To explore the impact of Chronic Disease Self-Management Program (CDSMP) on participants' perception of their behavior, health status and quality of life and how the program achieve its benefits, and to collect suggestions for future improvement and dissemination.
Methods: Qualitative data were obtained from 57 participants attending all sessions of the CDSMP course using semi-structured interviews and analyzed using content analysis.
Results: The interviewees perceived that CDSMP improved their knowledge, self-management skills, positive health behavior, increased self-confidence, health status and quality of life. Behavior change and self-efficacy were the two main transmitters of the effectiveness of CDSMP in Shanghai. The identified deficiencies focused on language, size and style of helpbook and the lack of Chinese relaxing exercises.
Conclusion: CDSMP was perceived to be effective to participants mainly through behavior change and self-efficacy development, though it had a few deficiencies to be modified.
Practice implications: CDSMP in Shanghai needs further work and research on the content and delivery modification for future improvement and dissemination.