Evaluation of a Home Self-Management Programme for Patients with Lower Limb Deep Vein Thrombosis after Hospital Discharge: A quasi-experimental study

Abstract Objective To develop and evaluate the effectiveness of a home self-management programme for patients with lower limb deep vein thrombosis (DVT) following discharge. Methods Using convenience sampling, 72 patients with lower limb DVT who were discharged from the Vascular Surgery Department of a Grade A Level III hospital in Jinan between January and May 2025 were selected. Patients were allocated to the intervention group or control group according to the sequence of admission,with 36 patients per group. The control group received routine follow-up care, whilst the observation group, in addition to the standard care provided to the control group, implemented an evidence-based home self-management programme (including health education via WeChat groups, regular follow-ups and online lectures). Self-management ability (Lower Limb DVT Patient Self-Management Scale), Villalta score, medication adherence (Morisky Scale) and quality of life (DVTQOL) were assessed in both groups at discharge and at 1, 3 and 6 months post-discharge. Results Repeated measures analysis of variance revealed a significant time × group interaction effect for the total self-management ability score in both groups ( F = 110.762, P < 0.001). At 6 months post-discharge, the total self-management ability score in the observation group (87.94 ± 2.64) was significantly higher than that in the control group (69.08 ± 5.70), with a statistically significant difference ( P < 0.001). The observation group demonstrated better medication adherence than the control group ( P < 0.001), lower Villalta scores than the control group ( P < 0.001), and greater improvement in overall quality of life scores than the control group ( P < 0.001). The incidence of PTS was 0% in the observation group and 11.11% in the control group. Conclusion An evidence-based home self-management programme can effectively improve self-management ability, medication adherence and quality of life in patients discharged with lower limb DVT, whilst reducing the risk of PTS; it is therefore worthy of further clinical validation and implementation.