Objective To explore the effect of interaction model of client health behavior (IMCHB) on self-management ability and quality of life in patients with ulcerative colitis (UC). Methods A total of 84 UC patients hospitalized from June 2016 to January 2018 were enrolled by convenience sampling method. They were randomly divided into observation group and control group with 42 cases in each group. Based on routine drug treatment, the control group received routine nursing intervention, while the observation group applied IMCHB to guide nursing intervention. Before intervention and 3 months after the intervention, the patients' self-management ability was assessed with the Inflammatory Bowel Disease Self-efficacy Scale (IBD-SES) and self-designed Self-Management Behavior Questionnaire, and the patients' quality of life was assessed with the Inflammatory Bowel Disease Questionnaire (IBDQ). Results At the end, 40 cases in the observation group and 41 cases in the control group were included in the study. There was no statistically significant difference in IBD-SES and IBDQ scores between the two groups before intervention (P＞ 0.05). After intervention, the scores of "stress and emotional management" in IBD-SES scale and "maintenance management in remission period" in observation group were (78.83±10.37), (46.83±3.58) respectively, higher than those in control group [(70.27±10.82), (44.27±3.61)], the scores of systemic symptoms and emotional ability in observation group were (20.25 ±2.68), (60.65±4.24) respectively, higher than those in control group [(18.32±3.01) and (58.37±4.82)]and the differences were statistically significant (P＜ 0.05). After intervention, the qualified rates of dietary records and exercise records in the observation group were 80.00%(32/40) and 85.00%(34/40), respectively, which were higher than those in the control group [51.22%(31/40) and 60.98%(25/40)] with statistical significance (P＜0.05). Conclusions IMCHB can promote the self-management ability and quality of life of UC patients.