Implementation of health education for confirmed COVID-19 patients

Abstract:

Objective To evaluate problems in health education during coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) epidemic period, and provide basis for hospitals to strengthen patient health education under regular status of epidemic prevention and control. Methods From April 1, to May 10, 2020, patients with confirmed COVID-19 in COVID-19 wards of Mudanjiang area were randomly selected and investigated by trained investigators, basic characteristics of the respondents,implementation of health education on hand hygiene(HH), wearing masks, opening windows for ventilation, closing doors, keeping wards clean, cough etiquette were recorded and filled in questionnaire. Results A total of 173 valid questionnaires were collected, COVID-19 patients who participated in the survey all received health education before admission, 73.41% (n=127) of whom received health education on cough etiquette, 98.27% (n=170) wore masks(94.12%[n=160] wore surgical masks); among isolation wards of 173 COVID-19 patients, the ratio of fully equipped HH facilities was 22.54% (n=39), 77.46% (n=134) were without fully equipped HH facilities, equipping rate of paper towels was the lowest (n=48, 27.75%). COIVID-19 patients who had fully equipped HH facilities performed HH more frequently per day(χ²=15.93,P<0.001);compared with only equipped with alcohol-based hand rub or not, when equipped with alcohol-based hand rub and other HH facilities, patients wash their hands more frequently per day(χ²=4.16,P=0.040);compared with not equipped with paper towels, when equipped with paper towels, patients wash their hands more frequently per day (χ²=15.03, P<0.001). The proportion of implementation of keeping indoor clean was the highest (n=166, 95.95%), and that of cough etiquette was the worst (n=107, 61.85%). With the increase of patients' age, proportion of poor implementation of cough etiquette was higher(χ²=19.66,P<0.001), implementation of cough etiquette in patients in general wards was better than that in critical care wards(χ²=15.82,P<0.001), correct rate of cough etiquette in patients receiving health education on cough etiquette was higher than that in patients without receiving health education on cough etiquette (χ²=94.57,P<0.001). Conclusion During the COVID-19 epidemic, health education level of patients is improved, but there are still some deficiencies, hospital should continue to strengthen the propaganda and education on respiratory tract hygiene and cough etiquette, improve self-protection awareness of patients as well as reduce infection risk of patients and health care workers.