Efficacy of health belief model education on medical adherence of acne patients: a comparison of face to face and pamphlet education with control group

Background and aim: Acne is a common skin disorder that can affect patient's quality of life. Most of acne patients do not seek medical treatment or are not adherent to it, while acne is a treatable condition. There are several methods that can be used to improve medical adherence, education is one of them. There are several models for patient's education. Regarding to belief and insight nature of barriers of adherence in acne patients, health belief model was chosen for intervention in order to increase their medical adherence.Materials and methods: We randomly assigned 141 patients with mild acne to one of following three groups. Group one received face to face education and pamphlet according to health belief model, group two only received pamphlet and group three received no education as control. Rate of adherence was calculated by self-reported log of patients and by weight of consumed medication. We followed all of patients for three months.Results: 101 patients compeleted study in three months. At baseline all demographic features were similar in three groups. At end of study, mean adherence rate that was calculated from patients log was different (p<0/05) between groups one and three. Mean adherence rate that was calculated from medication weight was different between group one and groups two or three (p<0/01).Conclusion: Health belief model based education is effective in improving medical adherence of acne patients. The main reason for efficacy of this model is related to removing of subjective barriers of adherence and to encourage the patient to better taking of medication. According to our results the education will be effective if patient received face to face education and education through pamphlets alone is not be effective. Measuring of adherence with weight of medication is more accurate than patients' self report.