Effectiveness of Structured Patient Education on Knowledge and SelfCare Practices Regarding Fungal Infections and Antifungal Therapy among Patients in Kotdwar, Uttarakhand: A Pre–Post Interventional Study

ABSTRACTFungal infections are common infectious diseases and they can have a major impact onpatients’ health and quality of life. Insufficient knowledge about the use of antifungalmedication and self-care may lead to inappropriate treatment and poor management. Thepresent study was conducted to assess the effectiveness of structured fungal-infectioneducation on knowledge and knowledge regarding self-care practices among patients withfungal infections in urban area of Kotdwar, Uttarakhand. A pre-experimental one group pretest/post-test design was used with 30 participants. Baseline knowledge and knowledgerelated to self-care practices were determined using a structured questionnaire. Participantswere then given fungal infection education via a PowerPoint presentation and informationalpamphlets and given the opportunity to ask questions. On day seven, a post-test was carriedout with the same questionnaire. The average knowledge score improved from 13.00 in thepre-test to 21.00 in the post-test with the reported t value of 33.55 which is statisticallysignificant at 0.05 level. Mean knowledge related practice score also improved from 12.00 to21.00 with t value 36.49 which is statistically significant. Pretest knowledge was significantlycorrelated with educational status and not with other selected demographic variables. Theresults indicated that structured patient education can improve short-term knowledge and knowledge related to self-care practices among patients with fungal infections. The resultsshould be interpreted considering the limitations of the questionnaire, the one-group studydesign, the short follow-up period and the small sample size.