Effect of Educational Intervention Based on Orem's Self-Care Theory on Health Literacy in Patients with Prostate Cancer under Chemotherapy: A Quasi-Experimental Study

Prostate cancer is one of the most common cancers and the cause of death among men. Health literacy helps the maintenance and promotion of people's health through improving self-care behaviors. Therefore, this study was conducted to determine the effect of educational intervention based on Orem's self-care theory on the health literacy of patients with prostate cancer undergoing chemotherapy in Shiraz, 2019-2020.

In this quasi-experimental study, 134 patients with prostate cancer and under chemotherapy were randomly divided into two control and experimental groups (n=67 each). The control group received routine training, while the experimental group received educational intervention based on Orem's self-care theory. Data was collected via the Health Literacy Questionnaire and analyzed using SPSS software (version 21).

The mean health literacy scores in the experimental and control groups were obtained at 97.14±13.02 and 98.41±14.99 before the intervention and 100.22±14.14 and 146.02±9.09 after the intervention, respectively. There was a significant difference between the two groups only after the intervention (P<0.05). A significant improvement was also observed in the mean health literacy score of the experimental group, compared to before the intervention (P<0.05). The results indicated a significant relationship between mean health literacy scores and education and resource access methods (P<0.05).

The self-care education based on Orem's theory increased health literacy in patients with prostate cancer undergoing chemotherapy. Therefore, educational intervention based on Orem's self-care theory is suggested to promote health literacy in these patients.