Effect of Multimedia Self-Care Education on Quality of Life in Burn Patients

BACKGROUND Burn injuries can have adverse effects on quality of life of patients and can disturb their physiological, psychological, social and spiritual well-being. This study aimed to investigate the effect of multimedia self-care program on quality of life in burn patients. METHODS This Randomized controlled clinical trial was conducted from November 2015 to December 2016. The samples were hospitalized burn patients with 10% to 45% of 1st, 2nd and 3rd degree burns of total body surface area (TBSA). The patients were randomly allocated into experimental (n=50) and control (n=50) groups. Both groups received the routine in-person self-care trainings of the hospital and then the experimental group received self-care compact disks. The quality of life questionnaire in both groups were completed before intervention and after 3-months and statistically analyzed. RESULTS Accordingly, the changes in quality of life and the dimensions between both groups after 3 month of intervention were significant. The changes in quality of life in experiment group was significantly greater than control group for physical, psychological and social variables. CONCLUSION According to the findings, using multimedia self-care programs can improve burn patient's quality of life, so it is recommended for nurses and hospital staffs of burn injury wards to use multimedia self-care programs as a complementary therapy measure.