The Effectiveness of a Liver Disease Education Class for Providing Information to Patients and Their Families

BACKGROUND: We have been conducting liver disease education classes regularly in our hospital for the purpose of providing health information to patients and their families. METHODS: In order to evaluate the effectiveness of these classes, we conducted a questionnaire survey of patients and family members who attended the classes held three times in 2012. The cumulative total number of participants was 80 (49 patients, 26 family members, and five others). The classes focused on the following areas: 1) prevention of hepatic cancer; 2) treatment of hepatic cancer; 3) iron restriction diet for hepatitis C patients; and 4) importance of branched-chain amino acid preparations. Self-evaluation of knowledge in these areas was based on a four-point scale. RESULTS: A comparison of knowledge levels between the patients and their family members revealed no statistically significant differences. Therefore, subsequent analyses were performed by combining the patients and their families into one group. The knowledge level of the participants increased with the number of class attendances; that is, the more often they attended, the more they accumulated knowledge (Kruskal-Wallis test: P < 0.0001; P = 0.0368; P = 0.0021; and P < 0.0001). In addition, the results of the questionnaire administered immediately before and after the education class showed significant improvement in the knowledge level for each area. CONCLUSION: The results of this study indicate the liver disease education class to be effective for improving the knowledge of patients and their families. The importance of repeated information provision was also demonstrated.