Abstract

Background and aim: Stress is one of the risk factors for cardiovascular disease and can a reduce general health and stress in cardiac patients. The purpose was to analyze the effectiveness of stress management strategies on general health of patients with myocardial infarction. Methods: Eighty six patients were selected through random sampling from internal, heart and CCU wards of ShahidMustafa Hospital in Ilam. They were randomly divided into two experimental (43) and control (43) groups. The intervention was conducted through face-to-face training sessions during three sessions and a booklet was provided as well. Cohen questionnaire (14 questions) and GHQ questionnaire (28 questions) were completed in two stages of pre-test and post-test by the members of the two groups. SPSS version 22 was used to analyze the samples. Findings: The result of showed that the average score of general health score in the post-academic phase of coping with stress was 28.53 less than before the study program was 49.41. The mean stress after 1 month of intervention was 29.86 less from the time before the intervention, it was 14.47. Mean stress three months after intervention was 28.54 less than before intervention and general 46.61 was less than before intervention. Considering that the level of stress in the control group in First, 51.55 and 1 month later, 53.64, indicates that the stress level was not improved initially and 1 month later. The stress level of the control group after 3 months after intervention was significantly higher than the 5th level, indicating a lack of improvement in the level of stress in the control group. Also, the general health of patients in the control group, with p greater than 5 hundred, indicates that there is no significant difference in the general health score 1 and 3 months after the intervention. Conclusion: The effectiveness of stress management strategies in improving the general health of the patients one month after the intervention compared with the control group and reducing stress and increasing general health 3 months after the intervention in comparison with the control group had a positive effect. This intervention can be effective in reducing disease progression and improving general health. One of the limitations of this study was the lack of sufficient time to track the treatment outcomes, which is recommended to have more consistent follow-ups in terms of the effectiveness of treatment in subsequent studies. © 2018, Editorial office of Journal of International Pharmaceutical Research. All rights reserved.