Determining the Effectiveness of an Atopic Dermatitis Patient Education Intervention for Improving Patients’ Knowledge
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Authors
Khela, Jasmin
Date
2025-06-24
Type
thesis
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Keyword
Atopic dermatitis , Patient education , Knowledge , Self-efficacy , Quality of life , Disease severity
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Abstract
Background: Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a chronic, relapsing-remitting skin disease. Patient education has improved patients’ understanding of the disease, clinical outcomes, and self-management practices. The “Eczema is a Wildfire” patient education intervention was previously developed in 2020 and demonstrated benefits for improving AD patients’ self-efficacy and clinical scores immediately after education and 2-6 months following education. Objective: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the “Eczema is a Wildfire” patient education intervention for improving patients’ actual/objective knowledge. Methods: An objective AD knowledge assessment tool (AD-KAT) was developed and validated prior to using it as an outcome measure for the patient education intervention. Thirty newly referred patients with AD were recruited from dermatology specialist clinics at Kingston Health Sciences Centre. AD patients’ knowledge was assessed at baseline, immediately after education, and 3-6 months following education. Patients’ self-efficacy was evaluated at all three time points and clinical scores were evaluated at baseline and during the 3-6 month follow-up period, as secondary outcome measures of the study. Feedback on the recent changes made to the patient education tool was received from AD patients that previously received the education intervention (secondary outcome measure). Results: The AD-KAT showed moderate reliability and validity on various psychometric properties measured. No significant improvements in patients’ knowledge were seen immediately after education and/or 3-6 months following education. Significant improvements in patients’ self-efficacy were seen post-education and during the follow-up period, as demonstrated in previous research. AD patients’ clinical scores did not significantly improve post-education and/or in the 3-6 months following education, which contrasted with findings from previous research. Overall, positive feedback on the changes made to patient education tool was received from study participants. Conclusions: Despite the intervention being ineffective for improving patients’ knowledge, it emphasized the important role of self-efficacy and patient education in the treatment and management of AD. Future research can distribute the patient education intervention in other specialist and primary care settings to further evaluate the patient education tool’s efficacy and improve health outcomes and access for AD patients at the community and population level.
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