Effect of an educational program on hepatitis c patients treated with interferon and their family caregivers

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) stands as one of the most important etiologies of chronic liver disease and is an emerging infection in the world. Egypt has the largest burden of HCV infection in the world. Aim: - To identify effect of an educational program on hepatitis C patients treated with interferon and their family caregivers. Materials and Method: A quazi experimental study design was used in this study. This study was carried out in the outpatient clinic at Al-Mahalla educational liver hospital. Purposive number of 50 HCV patients (numbers of cases in 6 months) and 50 of their family caregivers attending the previous setting were included in the study. Three tools were used in this study interview sheet, health profile sheet and SF36 HRQoL. Results: the result of this study showed that before implementation of the program the studied patients and their family caregivers' hade low scores of knowledge and practices furthermore, the studied patients also had poor life style behaviors and poor quality of life. After implementation of the program there was a significant improvement in the total knowledge and total practices score of the studied patients and their family caregiver's pre, immediate, and three months post program intervention. P (<0.001). There was a significant improvement in the dietary habits practices, activity of daily living and quality of life of the studied HCV patients. Conclusion: it can be concluded that the education program was effective and improved the level of HCV patients and their family care givers knowledge and practices toward management of HCV. And improve patient quality of life. Recommendation this study recommended that, an educational program should be planned and offered at regular basis to all patients and their caregivers to improve their knowledge, practices and quality of life.