The impact of health education in managing self-reported arthritis-related illness among elderly persons in rural Bangladesh

• This study examines the impact of health education on prevalenceof and expenditure on treatment of self-reported arthritis-relatedillness among elderly persons in rural Bangladesh. An interventionstudy was conducted, including 1135 elderly persons (60 years)from eight randomly selected villages, four each of an interventionand a control area. The analyses include 839 elderly personswho participated in both pre- and post-intervention surveys(intervention area: n = 425, control area: n = 414). Participantsof the intervention area were further categorized as compliant(n = 315) and non-compliant (n = 110) based on adherence tothe intervention instructions. The intervention that lastedfor 15 months comprised home-based physical exercise, dietaryinstructions and other aspects of management. Results show thatalthough there was no significant difference in self-reportedarthritis-related illness between the compliant and non-compliantgroups at baseline, it was significantly lower in the compliantgroup (71%) at post-intervention compared with the non-compliant(81%). Related monthly expenditure on treatment was significantlyreduced in the compliant group (from Taka 104 to Taka 52) butnot in the other two groups. Logistic regressions further showedthat the control group had a higher probability of increasedtreatment-related expenditure compared with the compliant group(OR 2.0, 95% CI 1.4–2.8).

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Psykologi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Psychology (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

health education

arthritis

old age

Bangladesh

Psychology

Psykologi

Psychology

psykologi

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

art (ämneskategori)