Effect of illness perception promoting interventions on treatment adherence in hemodialysis patients: A randomized controlled trial

Illness perception plays an important role in se lf-care behavior and treatment adherence in hemodialysis patients. So interventions that promote illness perception can cause improvement in treatment adherence of Hemodialysis patients. Hence، this study had been conducted with the aim of determining the effect of illness perception promoting interventions on treatment adherence in hemodialysis patients. In this randomized clinical trial، 71 patients undergoing hemodialysis were allocated randomly to the intervention (n=38) and control (n=33) groups. For data collection، a two-part questionnaire consists of socio-demographic questionnaire and questionnaire of treatment adherence of hemodialysis patients (ESRD-AQ) were used. After pretest، patients in intervention group received illness perception promoting interventions individually for six sessions and control group just received routine care of the unit. Posttest was done 8 weeks after the end of intervention. The data of the study were analyzed by using SPSS-16 software and independent and paired T test. Results showed that patients participating in illness perception promoting interventions had significantly higher scores in the areas of adherence to medication (p=0. 01)، adherence to liquid limitation (p=0. 001)، adherence to dietary restriction (p=0. 001) and shortening durance of the hemodialysis sessions (p= 0. 04) than patients in control group. Illness perception promoting interventions causes improvement in some dimensions of treatment adherence in hemodialysis patients. Considering inadequate research literature، there is a need for more research in this area.