Assessment of the Effect of Self Care Program on Quality of Life in Patients with Cirrhosis referred to Tehran Hepatitis Center in 2003

Liver cirrhosis is one of the most essential problems of health care system in our country, because of its high prevalence and its disabling or deathly complications. According to literatures, chronic liver disease substantially reduces HROL which does not differ markedly by the type of the disease. In this regard, designing a self care program according to client’s needs in different aspects of quality of life, can maintain their independence, promote their sense of well-being and improve their quality of life. Using non-probability sampeling(convenience), a number of 44 patients(21 experimental & 23 control) concerning their charactristics(20-65 old, etc) were studied. Patients and their fellows’ demographic questionnaire, chronic liver disease questionnaire(CLDQ), educational needs checklist and self-reported checklist were the data collecting tools. For experimental group and their fellows, a self care program was performed in 4 sessions with 45 minutes. The quality of life in both groups was assessed by CLDQ questionnaire before performance of the self care program and three months after the self care program. The quality of life in both groups was compared and then data were analyzed using SPSS software. Chi-squared test and t-test revealed that the experimental and control group were the same concerning the effective factors on the quality of life, such as age, sex, etc(P>0.05). Mann-whitney test showed that the quality of life total score before intervention did not show a significant difference between the two groups(P=0.75). While after intervention the same test indicated a significant difference between the two groups(P=0.001). Wilcoxon test revealed that the quality of life total score before and after self care program in the experimental group had a significant difference(P=0.001), and the same test showed a significant difference in the control group too (has a decrease)(P=0.001). Consequently, the hypothesis of this study “the quality of life in patients with cirrhosis increases after the performance of self care program compared to the control group” was confirmed.