Background: Self-determination theory is useful for explaining how kidney transplant recipients self-manage their postoperative health, including drug regimens, but few studies have applied this theory to transplant recipients. This study aimed to examine the influence of health professionals’ autonomy support, autonomous motivation and competence on kidney transplant patients’ self-management based on the self-determination theory.
Methods: This study included 79 kidney transplant patients from one outpatient clinic in a general hospital in Seoul, Korea. Data on the health professionals’ support of patient autonomy and the kidney transplant patients’ autonomous motivation, competence, and self-management were collected from self-report questionnaires.
Results: The factors that influenced self-management behavior in kidney transplant patients were competence (β=0.377, P=0.001) and autonomous motivation (β=0.293, P=0.006). The explanatory power of these variables was 30.1%.
Conclusions: This study found that autonomous motivation and competence in kidney transplant patients affected their self-management, indicating that if healthcare professionals enhance patients’ competence and autonomous motivation, their self-management can be improved. The development of intervention programs that assist healthcare professionals in strengthening patients’ autonomous motivation and competence is recommended.

Keywords: Self-management, Kidney transplantation, Self-determination