Effect of Educational Guidelines on Adherence of Patients with Viral Hepatitis C toward New Oral Therapeutic Regimen

Abstract

Context: Viral hepatitis was estimated to be the seventh leading cause of mortality globally. One of the countries most affected by the hepatitis C virus is Egypt.

Aim: This study aimed to evaluate the effect of educational guidelines on the adherence of patients with viral hepatitis C toward a new oral therapeutic regimen.

Methods: A quasi-experimental research design (one group pretest-posttest) was utilized to achieve the aim of this study. This study was conducted in the hepatitis C treatment clinic at Beni Suef general hospital on a purposive sample of 94 patients with viral hepatitis C. The study tools include patients' assessment questionnaire to assess sociodemographic characteristics of patients, current and past medical history, and patients’ knowledge regarding hepatitis C and its new oral medication, patient adherence assessment scale to assess the level of patients' adherence to therapeutic regimens were used to collect the current study's data.

Results: The study showed that 72.3% of studied patients adhered to the therapeutic regimen post-implementation of the educational guidelines compared to 54.3% pre-implementation, with a statistically significant difference at p <0.05.

Conclusion: Implementation of the educational guideline had a statistically significant positive effect on improving HCV patients' adherence to the therapeutic regimen. The study recommended designing an Arabic educational material about HCV and the management needed to be given to every patient during treatment. Close involvement of the individuals and their families in decision-making about disease management to improve patient adherence.