The effect of health worker support and self-efficacy on self-care agency of lepers in Indonesia

Infectious disease is a problem that has not been resolved, whereas one of the infectious diseases is leprosy. Self-care agency is the ability needed to care for oneself or others. This study aimed to determine the support of health workers and self-efficacy that affect the self-care agency of leprosy patients.The research design used cross-sectional. This research was conducted in November 2021 in Sumenep Regency. The study population was 232 leprosy patients with a total sample of 145. The sampling technique was proportional random sampling with analysis of the effect using the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) SmartPLS test. Health worker support had an effect on self-efficacy with T value of 5.408 (> 1.96). Self-efficacy had an effect on self-care agency with T value 9,743 (> 1.96). The support of health workers didn’t directly affect the self-care agency, but it had an indirect effect through self-efficacy. An interpersonal approach such as the support of health workers needs to be done to increase the self-efficacy of the patient, which aims to help patients have a self-care agency to carry out self-care and prevent the transmission of leprosy