The Effects of a Epilepsy Education Program on Self Efficacy and Self Management in Patients with Epilepsy

Park, Yeong Sook

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to test the effects of a epilepsy education program as a nursing intervention for patients with epilepsy. A quasi treatment research (non equivalent control group pretest-posttest design) was used in this study. The subjects were 40 epilepsy patients visiting an outpatient department of a general hospital in Daegu city(treatment group : 20 patients, control group : 20 patients). The study was carried out from June, 19998 to September, 1998. Data was collected before the education program(pretest), immediately after(posttest 1) and 4 weeks later(posttest 2) and were analyzed with repeated measures ANOVA, t-test, Chi-square test and Pearson correlation coefficient. The results are as follows : There was a significant difference in epilepsy self efficacy between two groups(F=26.27, p=.000). There was a significant difference according to pretest, posttest 1 and posttest 2(F=111.20, p=.000), and interaction effect between treatment and time(F=109.42, p=.000). There was a significant difference in epilepsy self management between two groups(F=78.02, p=.000). There was a significant difference according to pretest, posttest 1 and posttest 2 test(F=94.02, p=.000), and interaction effect between treatment and time(F=88.14, p=.000). There was a significant correlation(r=.76, p=.000) between epilepsy self efficacy and epilepsy self management. These results suggest that a epilepsy education program is effective in promoting self efficacy and self management of the patient with epilepsy. Thus this program can be recommended as an effective nursing intervention for the epilepsy patients.