Objective  To understand the status quo of self-management ability in elderly patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and to analyze the mediating effect of health empowerment between ruminative and self-management ability in elderly COPD patients.

Methods  A total of 260 elderly patients with COPD were selected as the study subjects, and the general situation questionnaire, health empowerment scale for elderly patients with chronic diseases, Nolen-Hoeksema ruminative responses scale (RRS) and COPD patient self-management scale were used.Pearson analysis was used to analyze the correlation between health empowerment, ruminative response and self-management ability in elderly COPD patients.

Results  Self-management score was (138.26±14.67) points, ruminative response score was (39.34±4.48) points, and health empowerment score was (85.65±9.78) points in 253 elderly patients with COPD.Educational level and family monthly income were influencing factors of self-management ability of elderly COPD patients (P < 0.01).Pearson analysis showed that self-management was negatively correlated with ruminative response (P < 0.05 to P < 0.01), and positively correlated with health empowerment (P < 0.05 to P < 0.01);ruminative response was negatively correlated with health empowerment (P < 0.05 to P < 0.01).The mediating effect of health empowerment on ruminative response and self-management in elderly COPD patients was established, and the mediating effect accounted for 23.53% of the total effect.

Conclusions  The scores of self-management, ruminative response and health empowerment in elderly COPD patients are all at moderate levels.There is a two-by-two correlation between ruminative response, health empowerment and self-management.Health empowerment has a 23.53% mediating effect between ruminative response and self-management, confirming that rumination thinking can influence self-management behavior by regulating healthy empowerment tendency.It is suggested that while paying attention to patients' ruminative response, clinical medical staff should pay attention to assessing the level of health empowerment, and take targeted measures to enhance the influence of ruminative response on self-management behavior.