AIM: This research aimed to survey knowledge, attitudes and self- care behaviors of patients with colostomies who are members of Ostomy Supporting Group. BACKGROUND: Literature on survey knowledge, attitudes and self- care behaviors of patients with colostomies in Vietnam was limited. This study was not only assess patients with colostomy overall, but also proposed to construct health education program in advance. METHOD: A descriptive research design was used. Participants were recruited from the meeting of Ostomy Supporting Group in 23 March, 2014, at University medical Center Ho Chi Minh City in Viet Nam. The researcher set up 60 questions for patients to full fill the answers under instruction of the researcher. There were 112 participants participate in this study, however, only 100 valid questionnaires resulting in an 89 % response rate. The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences version 16.0 was used for analyzing the collected data by a combination of statistical procedures. FINDINGS: In overall, 42 percentages of patients with colostomies who had good knowledge on colostomy, 63% showed positive attitudes toward to colostomy, and 73% demonstrated self-care behaviors on their colostomy. In addition, the relationship among knowledge, attitudes and self- care behaviors were statistically significantly. Knowledge has influenced attitudes and self-care behaviors among patients with colostomies. CONCLUSION: This research has exposed patients’ ability in self-care of their colostomies. Moreover, construction of health education program in advance was very important to upgrade patients’ knowledge. Future studies need to focus on construction and evaluation patients education programs.
