Effect of Self-Care Education on the Illness Perception in Patients With Hemodialysis: A Randomized Control Trial

The results of studies have shown that inadequate awareness and self-care of patients with chronic renal failure, leads to an incorrect illness perception in these patients. Considering the importance of this issue, this study aimed to investigate the effect of self-care education in patients undergoing hemodialysis.

This was a simple randomized clinical trial. The statistical society of the study consisted of 120 patients undergoing hemodialysis in dialysis department of Bu-Ali Sinai Hospital in Qazvin from December 2016 to February 2017. The samples were assigned randomly to two groups of control (routine care) and intervention (illness perception intervention). Both groups completed the demographic information questionnaire, illness perception questionnaire before the intervention. The intervention group received self-care education based on illness perception in the patient’s bedside and before initiation of dialysis in 3 sessions of 30 minutes. A training booklet was also given at the second session of the patient’s delivery, which was provided by the researcher and under the supervision of the professors. Four weeks later, the questionnaire of illness perception was completed by both groups. Data were analyzed using descriptive and analytic statistical tools in SPSS 20. The results of this study showed that there was not a significant difference between the two groups in terms of demographic information, except for the duration of dialysis (P<0.014). The ANOVA test results showed a significant difference in terms of patient’s illness perception between the intervention and control group (F(1, 112)=13.88, P<0.001). Self-care educational intervention based on illness perception increased the perception of the disease in hemodialysis patients.