Journal of School of Public Health and

Background and Aim: Based on WHO reports, there are about 100-150 million people with asthma around the world and the number is increasing. Asthma is a prevalent disease and permanent self-management is needed in order to control the symptoms and maintain the normal action of the lungs and a normal level of activity. The Green's Model of Health Education Planning provides a systematic process for planning, implementation and evaluation of population health promotion programs and is used in a broad range of issues in health promotion, including self-management in asthma. This study was carried out with the aim of determining predictors of self-management behaviors in patients with asthma in Yazd, Iran, based on the above-mentioned model.

Methods and Materials: In this cross-sectional study convenience sampling was employed to recruit 94 outpatients with asthma from among those referring to Shaheed-Sadooghi Clinic in Yazd, Iran. Data were collected using a questionnaire based on the Green's Model constructs, consisting of predisposing, reinforcing, and enabling factors and self-management behaviors. Reliability and validity of the questionnaire were assessed prior to data collection.

Results: The subjects acquired 49.5%, 68.6%, 67.3%, and 61.2 % of the earnable scores for self-management behavior, predisposing factors, reinforcing factors, and enabling factors, respectively. Predisposing, reinforcing, and enabling variables had positive correlations with self-management behaviors (p<0.01) and accounted for 34.6% of the self-management variance. Predisposing factors were the strongest predictor (β = 0.480).

Conclusion: It is concluded that the Green's Model of Health Education Planning can be used in developing countries, such as Iran, as a framework for planning intervention programs in an attempt to improve the self-management behaviors of patients with asthma. Designing and implementing educational programs aiming at promoting self-management behaviors in asthmatic patients with emphasis on predisposing factor enhancement is recommended.