Patient’s information on their disease and therapy in an academic extension project - doi:10.5020/18061230.2011.p258

Abstract

Objective: To assess the patient’s acquired information about their disease and treatment after six months of outpatient follow-up in a University Hospital with health education actions of an academic extension project. Methods: The study design was experimental. At each monthly visit of the patient to the clinic, Medical School students from Federal University of Paraíba (UFPB) participants of the Continuum Extension Project, repeatedly provided information on chronic disease and its treatment, conducting educational orientation individually during each consultation. For the interviews, we used a questionnaire created by the authors to assess the retention of information by the patient, applied at the initial medical appointment and six months after implementation of the health education project. Results: There was an increase of information on diagnoses consistent with reality, as well as on the drugs in use; the 33.3% that reported knowing the names of the medications in use at the beginning of follow-up changed to 65.5%; the 12.5% that knew the side effects of medications increased to 41.7%. Conclusion: We conclude that, in short term, there was an improvement in information acquired by patients after health educations actions provided by the academic extension project.