Effect of nursing guidelines on adherence to healthy lifestyle practices among patients with a small lower ureteric stone

Abstract

Background: Urinary stone affects about 12% of the world's population and has become a worldwide health problem. Lifestyle practices can contribute to the risk of urinary stone formation; addressing these practices adequately can provide a simple and more cost-effective measure for the prevention of urinary stones and the reduction of its recurrence among urinary stone patients. The current study aimed to evaluate the effect of nursing guidelines on adherence to healthy lifestyle practices among patients with a small lower ureteric stone.Research design: Quasi-experimental design was used to achieve the aim of this study.Sample: A purposive sample of 60 patients was divided into two groups (30 patients in the study group and 30 patients in the control group).Tool (I): includes part one: demographic characteristics of the patients, part two: included present medical history and previous medical history.Tool (II): Adherence of healthy lifestyle practices scale: it was divided into three subscales regarding consumption of restricted foods, consumption of fluids, and healthy usual self-activities.Results: The mean age for the study and control groups are 38.63 and 41.33 years, respectively. More than one-third (36.7%) and 33.3% respectively of the study and control groups have previous histories of urinary tract stones. There are statistically significant differences in mean scores of adherence levels to healthy lifestyle practices between both groups post the nursing guidelines. Only the majority of the study group (93.3%) achieved a satisfactory level following the nursing guidelines.Conclusion: Nursing guidelines have a positive effect on adherence to healthy lifestyle practices to prevent its recurrence.Recommendations: Creation of an educational unit for urinary tract stone patients in the nephrology and urology hospital. Conducting similar studies on a larger probability sample is recommended to achieve generalization of the findings.