ZHANG Yanlan, LI Yanling, LONG Jin, LI Guangqing, DUAN Yuhan, CHANG Yan
Objective: To evaluate the role of health education in improving treatment compliance of patients with epilepsy.
Methods: A total of 180 eligible patients with epilepsy were recruited in this study and randomly divided into the health education group (n = 90, on the basis of routine health education, the health education nurses carried out systematic intervention, including guiding the patients to take the medicine regularly, take a visit to the clinic regularly and have a record of medication diary, and calling back regularly to supervise the patients’ treatment compliance) and the control group (n = 90, only receiving routine health education). After a follow-up of 12 months, 79 patients in the health education group and 76 patients in the control group were included in the final analysis. The differences in treatment compliance score and compliance rate between the 2 groups before and after intervention were examined.
Results: There were no statistically significant differences in treatment compliance score and compliance rate between 2 groups before intervention and at 2 months since the start of intervention (both P > 0.05). However, at 6 and 12 months, the treatment compliance score and the compliance rate were both higher in the health education group than those in the control group (both P < 0.05).
Conclusion: Nurses’ health education through guiding the epilepsy patients to take medicine on time and take a regular visit to the clinic, as well as urging the patients to have a medication diary record, is helpful to enhance the treatment compliance of epilepsy patients, and improve the outcomes of treatment.
