The Effects Of Intensive Health Education On Stress Of Outpatients With Chronic Hepatitis B Virus Infection

Objectives: To examine the levels of stress of outpatients with chronic HBV infection, to explore the effects of intensive health education on stress of outpatients with chronic HBV infection.Methods: The study used an experimental design, which was conducted at the outpatient department of the First and Second Xiang Ya Hospital of Central South University in Changsha, China. A convenient sample of 80 patients was selected as the subjects of the study. The 80 patients who came from the outpatient department of the two hospitals during December 2005 to March 2006 were randomly allocated to a control or intervention group. The intervention group received intensive heath education, which was designed specially by researcher; while the control group just received the routine health information. The intensive health education lasted 3 months. Instruments used for data collection were composed of three parts: Demographic Data Recording Form (DDRF) and the Perceived Stress Scale specific to Hepatitis B Patients (PSSH). Descriptive analysis, chi-square test, two-sample t-test, analysis of variance (ANOVA), Wilcoxon rank sum test, paired t-test and repeated measurement ANOVA were performed using with the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) 13.0.Results: (1) The average score of PSSH of outpatients with chronic HBV infection is 32.64±10.77; (2) Living alone, earnings, test of HBV markers can impact the level of stress; (3) Compared with the control group, the intensive health education improved the stress of the patients in intervention group (P=0.012).Conclusions: (1) The stress of the outpatients with chronic HBV infection is moderate level. (2) The intensive heath education can reduce the stress of the outpatients with chronic HBV infection; (3) The doctors and nurses at outpatient department of infections disease should pay more attention to the effects of health education that can influence the stress on patients with chronic HBV infection, strengthen the health education, improve the level of knowledge about hepatitis B, meanwhile the health education should be applied into community and school to improve all people's level of knowledge, which can provide more social supports to patients with chronic HBV infection and reduce their level of psychological stress.