An Evaluation on the Effectiveness of Patient Care Education on Quality of Life of Stroke Caregivers: a Randomized Field Trial

Stroke is a debilitating and chronic disease. Caring of a patient with stroke can affect caregiver’s life dimensions, especially their quality of life. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of patient care education on caregivers’ quality of life of stroke patient.
This randomized field trial was performed on 120stroke patients who were hospitalized in Vasei hospital in Sabzevar in 2014. Research units were randomly assigned to two groups: intervention group (n=60) and control group (n=60).Both groups completed SF-36 questionnaire before and one month after education. Data analyzed through chi-square, wilcoxon, paired t-test and independent t-test with STATAsoftware(V.12) with 5% significant level.
The results revealed that, one month after education, scores of quality of life was significantly higher in intervention group than control group. The most differences were in General Health (p=1.000), Role ofPhysical(p=1.000) and Role of Emotion (1.000).
Teaching caring to caregivers of stroke patients leaded to enhancement of knowledge and skill in caring of patients and, finally, increased their quality of life. So,the importance of teaching care skills to caregivers by nurses must be paid more attention than before.