Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the effect of motivational interviewing on the self-care behaviours in patients with chronic heart failure.Methods: Sixty-two hospitalized patients with chronic heart failure were recruited in this study from April 2014 to April 2015 from a hospital.Twenty-nine patients were in the intervention group,and 33 patients were in the control group.Patients in the intervention group received four sessions of motivational interviewing,whereas those in the control group received traditional health education.At 2,4,and 8 weeks post-discharge,the intervention group underwent telephone follow-up based on motivational interviewing,whereas the control group underwent routine telephone follow-up.Primary outcome was measured using the Self-care of Heart Failure Index at baseline and at 2 months postdischarge.Results: Before intervention,the self-care behaviours scores were 79.00±48.80 in the intervention group and 88.68 ± 29.26in the control group.No statistically significant differences were found between two groups in scores for each subscale and total scale (P ＞ 0.05).After intervention,the scores of self-care behaviours in the two groups were both improved at 155.13±35.65 for the intervention group and 115.44 ± 22.82 for the control group with statistically significance (P＜ 0.01).The score of self-care behaviours increased by 76.13 point in the intervention group on average,whereas 26.76 point in the control group.There was significant difference between increases in scores of self-care behaviours in two groups (P ＜ 0.01).Conclusions: The self-care behaviours of patients with chronic heart failure could be improved effectively through motivational interviewing.