Masroor Roudsari Daryadokht(1), Rahimian Elham*(2), Leila Janani(3)
Background: Heart failure is one of the most common chronic diseases that are associated with a reduction in self-care and quality of life. Considering the positive role of education in developing and improving the quality of life, introducing appropriate educational method for these patients is important. This study was performed with the aim of determining the impact of peer-led education and lecture method on the self-care in patients with heart failure.
Methods: In this quasi-experimental study during 2016, 88 patients with heart failure of Firouzgar and Rasool Akram hospitals affiliated to Iran University of Medical Sciences are randomly divided into two groups of individual and peer education (44 participants in each group). After preparing a peer group, a training session was conducted by peer educators during one month. Data collection tools were included demographic information forms and European self-care questionnaire for patients with heart failure (12- items), which was completed by both the groups before and two months after the intervention. Data were analyzed by SPSS version 16 using descriptive and inferential statistics.
Findings: The results showed that there was no statistically significant relationship between variables, including educational level (p= 0.147), place of residence (p= 0.278), job (p= 0.145) and number of previous hospitalization (p= 0.06) and self-care, so they were not interfering. There was no statistically significant relationship between the mean scores of self-care before the intervention in the control and the intervention groups. Two months after the intervention, the mean of total self-care in both groups was 38.27 ± 3.85 and 18.25 ±2.98 and the mean differences were significant.
Conclusion: The results showed that both educational methods lead to improved self-care in patients, but peer-led education can have a better impact on self-care in patients with heart failure.
