WORLD JOURNAL OF ADVANCE
HEALTHCARE RESEARCH

Akshita Awasthi*, Rohitash Kumar, Urmila Dhakad, Puneet Kumar and Prashant Kumar Bajpai

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic autoimmune disorder that requires lifelong management,including medication adherence and self-care. Despite medical advancements, many patients lack sufficientknowledge and do not practice effective self-care, leading to disease progression. Nurse-led educationprogrammes can empower patients by improving disease understanding and encouraging proper selfmanagementbehaviours. Methodology: A quasi-experimental one-group pre-test post-test design was adopted toassess the effect of a nurse-led education programme on knowledge and expressed self-care practices among 92RA patients attending the Department of Rheumatology, King George’s Medical University (KGMU), Lucknow.Data were collected using a socio-demographic questionnaire, a self-structured knowledge questionnaire (18items), and a self-care practice checklist (15 items). Pre- and post-intervention assessments were conducted onemonth apart. Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics, including paired t-tests and chi-squaretests. Results: The study revealed a significant improvement in participants’ knowledge post-intervention.Pre-test results showed 34.8% of patients had poor knowledge, while post-test results indicated that 94.6% hadgood knowledge (p < 0.05). Although an increase in self-care practice scores was noted, the change was notstatistically significant. No significant association was found between demographic variables and knowledge orpractice scores. Conclusion: The nurse-led education programme was effective in improving knowledge amongRA patients. However, the intervention had a limited impact on expressed self-care practices, indicating the needfor sustained, behaviour-focused interventions in conjunction with education.