Influence of systematic health education on the quality-of-life of patients with rheumatoid arthritis

Abstract

Objective To understand the quality-of-life of patients with rheumatoid arthritis and to improve their quality-of-life through improving the compliance of taking drug by applied systematized health education. Methods 104 rheumatoid arthritis patients were randomly enrolled in control group ( n =52) and experimental group (n =52 ), all of which were received general treatment and care. Patients in the experimental group were received comprehensive healthy education, including disease-related knowledge, drug adherence and quality of life. The rate of awareness of disease-related knowledge, compliance of taking drug and quality of life were compared. Results The awareness of disease-related knowledge in experimental group was 94.2％, 25.0％ in control group, there was statistically significant difference ( X2 =33. 33, P ＜ 0. 01 )compliance of taking drug in experimental group was higher than in control group (73. 1％ vs 13.5％ ,X2 =37.64 ,P ＜0. 01 ). the score of SF-36 was the different in the two groups( P ＜0. 01 ). Conclusions Systematic health education can improve the patients' awareness on the importance of drug therapy and subsequent compliance, and enhance the quality of life as well. Key words: Arthritis,juvenilen rheumatoid; Health education; Quality of life; Compliance