Effects of education on knowledge and practice of caregivers of the stroke patient

Purpose This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of stroke patient care education on the knowledge and practice of caregivers of stroke patients. Method Data was collected from December 15, 2004 to March 30, 2005. The research design was a non-equivalent control group non-synchronized design. The subjects were forty primary caregivers of stroke patients who were hospitalized in a neurology unit of a university hospital. Forty caregivers, twenty in the experimental group and twenty in the control group were assigned. The experimental group participated 2 times in an education class given by the researcher. Data analysis included -test, and t-test using the SPSS program. Result Knowledge(t=5..87, p=o.oo) and practice(t=5.53, p=0.00) of the experimental group were significantly different from the control group. Conclusion The stroke patient care education developed in this study shows a significant promotion of knowledge and practice of caregivers. Thus this program can be recommanded as an intervention model for stroke patients and caregivers.