Preventive Care in Nursing and Midwifery Journal

Background and Objectives: Chronic diseases are major and growing health problem around the world. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of education on the educational needs and weight changes in patients undergoing hemodialysis. Material and Methods: In this semi-experimental clinical trial, 63 patients who were eligible to participate in the study were selected from two hospitals of Zanjan University of Medical Sciences. Patients were randomly allocated into two experiment and control groups. Patients in the experiment group received education. The control group patients received the routine care. Educational needs and body weight changes were measured in both groups before and two months after the intervention. Results: The resultsshowedthat71.8 % of samples in the interventional group had high educational needs and were set at undesirable level (p=65%). Two months after the intervention, educational needs of patients reached the half-desired level (p<0.001). There was a significant difference between weight changes before the intervention and two months after the intervention (p=0.002). The mean weight changes were reduced from 2.7kgto2.1kg (53.2%). Conclusion: According to the findings of this study, education could reduce educational needs balance weight in hemodialysis patients.