Abstract

Aim. The aim of this study was to examine the effect of self-care education on quality of life in patients following pacemaker implantation.

Background. One of the most common causes of death after myocardial infarction is arrhythmia resistant to treatment. This type of arrhythmia can be managed by pacemaker. The quality of life after pacemaker implantation is usually low, and self-care education may be a method to address this issue.

Method. In a randomized clinical trial study, 80 patients, candidate for permanent pacemaker implantation at Rajaie Cardiovascular, Medical and Research Center, were recruited to either control or experimental group through the blocked randomization. Data were collected using demographic form and the MacNew health-related quality of life questionnaire. The experimental group patients, in accompany with one first-degree relative, received one session of self-care education on the preimplantation day. The content of this 30 minutes session was "how to use educational footage and pamphlets, and also, a face-to-face education. At the end of the session, the patients were given an "educational package". Following implantation, the experimental group patients were contacted once a week for one-month period. The data were analyzed by SPSS, version 15, using inferential statistics.

Results. There were no statistically significant difference between the experimental and control groups in the mean scores of emotional, physical, and social aspects of quality of life and overall quality of life, before self-care education however, after intervention, a statistically significant difference was found in all these variables between experimental and control groups (P=0.004).

Conclusion. Self-care education could have an effect on the quality of life of patients after permanent pacemaker implantation.

Abstract

Aim.The aim of this study was to determine the effect of patient teaching on self-care behaviors with media clips in patients with permanent pacemaker.

Background. One of the most common causes of death after myocardial infarction is arrhythmia. One of the methods to control the arrhythmia resistant to treatment is implantation of pacemaker. The studies that have been done on patients with electrical devices show that most of patients don’t have any information about how to take care of their device and need more education for self-care.

Method. This randomized clinical trial was conducted on 80 patients scheduled to receive permanent pacemakers at Rajaie Cardiovascular, Medical and Research Center in 2012. The patients were recruited to either control or intervention group through block randomization method. Data were collected using demographic checklist. The intervention group patients together with one of their close family members received one session of self-care education on the pre-implantation day. The session was 30 minutes long and contained the use of educational media clip. At the end of the session, the patients were given an “educational package”. Following implantation, the intervention group were contacted weekly for a one-month period. Finally, the variables were compared between the two groups via independent t-test, chi-square test, repeated variance analysis, and using SPSS version 15.

Findings. There were no statistically significant differences between the intervention and control groups (P=0.106) however, after intervention, a meaningful difference was observed in all these variables in the intervention group (P<0.0001).

Conclusion. The results of this study showed that education of self-care behaviors with media clip could have an impact on the self-care of post-pacemaker implantation patients and we recommend this method to improve patient’s knowledge and self-care behaviors and minimize the number of re-hospitalization in these patients.