Objective To explore the effect of a structured health education program in self-management of young and middle-aged patients with ischemic stroke. Methods From August to December 2021，young and middle-aged ischemic stroke patients hospitalized in two wards of the Department of Neurology，a tertiary care hospital in Hunan Province were recuited as the participants and divided into the experimental group（n=30） and the control group（n=28）. A structured health education program for young and middle-aged ischemic stroke patients was implemented in the experimental group，including health education content on the theme of understanding stroke，how to establish a healthy lifestyle，medication guidance and regular follow-up combined with patient brochures，small videos，wall charts and other tools. Meanwhile，the routine health education program in neurology was implemented for the control group，including in-hospital guidance and weekly health education advocacy session. participats’ admission，one and three months after discharge，the stroke self-management behavior rating scale was used to evaluate the effect. Results There was an interaction effect between self-management behavior groups and time in both groups（F=28.520，P<0.001），and simple effect analysis showed that the self-management level in the experimental group was significantly higher than that in the control group three months after discharge（P<0.05）. There were interaction effects between groups and time in the dimension of disease management（F=13.290，P<0.001），safe medication management（F=4.073，P=0.022），diet management（F=9.656，P<0.001），and rehabilitation exercise ma-nagement（F=5.204，P=0.009） in both groups. Besides，simple effect analysis showed that the diet management scores of the experimental group were higher than those of the control group at one and three months after discharge（P<0.05），and the disease management，safe medication management and rehabilitation exercise management scores of the experimental group were higher than those of the control group at three months after discharge（P<0.05）. Conclusion The structured education program applied to young and middle-aged stroke patients can improve their self-management behaviors and promote their management of diseases，safe medication，diet，and rehabilitation exercises.