PURPOSE
This study was to identify the relationship between family support, self-efficacy and self-care performance in patients with chronic illness. METHODS: The subjects were 100 in-and out-patients who were diagnosed with chronic illness at university hospital in Cheonan. The data analyzed using descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation coefficient and stepwise multiple regression with SPSS WIN 12.0. RESULTS: The level of family support, self-efficacy and self-care performance were high. The family support in patients with chronic illness indicated a significant positive correlation to self-care performance but no significant correlation to self-efficacy. The self-efficacy in patients with chronic illness indicated a significant positive correlation to self-care performance. Family support and self-efficacy account for 24.4% of variance of the self-care performance. The most significant predictor which influenced self-care performance in patients with chronic illness was family support. CONCLUSION: The results of this study showed that family support and self-efficacy are very important variables in explaining the self-care performance. Therefore, these variables should be considered in nursing intervention development and education.