Abstract
Objective
To assess the effectiveness of an educational health promotion program in improving quality of life and knowledge domains of metabolic syndrome.
Methods
This is a non-randomized clinical trial including 61 adults with metabolic syndrome (49±7.6 years). Participants were intentionally divided into two groups: intervention (n=31) and control (n=30). The primary outcome was the change in knowledge about metabolic syndrome and its risk factors, and the secondary, the improvement in quality of life (SF-36) assessed in two moments, at baseline and at the end of intervention (six months). Mann Whitney and Wilcoxon U tests were used, adopting a significance level of 5%.
Results
The educational program improved the body ache domain of quality of life in the intervention group (p=0.01), although with no statistical difference between the groups. Knowledge about hypertension and diabetes (p=0.02), metabolic syndrome (p<0.001) and general knowledge (p<0.001) showed a significant increase in the intervention group at six months, which did not occur in the control group.
Conclusion
The educational program can be an effective strategy to improve quality of life, highlighting the domain of body ache and increasing knowledge of metabolic syndrome in adults with the syndrome.
Community health nursing; Health education; Patient education; Metabolic syndrome; Quality of life; Risk factors