Effectiveness of an Epilepsy Education Programme on the Self- Management among Patients with Epilepsy

The purpose of this study is to determine the effectiveness of an epilepsy education programme on self-management among patients with epilepsy. The methodology adopted was a randomized controlled trial wherein patients were assigned to the study and control groups based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Pretest on selfmanagement was conducted on the first day. On the 15 th day the study group received the Epilepsy Education Programme and the Epilepsy Information Booklet. The control group received the routine care. This was followed by 1 st reinforcement at one and a half months. The posttest I was carried out at the end of the third month for both the groups. The second reinforcement was conducted at four and a half months following which the posttest II was carried out at the end of the sixth month for both the study and control groups. The study began with 175 participants in each group but at the end of the sixth month, the study group had 169 patients with epilepsy and the control group had 167 respectively. The findings revealed that the overall self-management scores of the study group had increased from 2.97, 3.39 to 3.79 compared to that of the control group which showed a minimal difference from 3.46 at pretest, 3.42 at third month to 3.46 at the end of the sixth month. The type of epilepsy had an impact on self-management.