Health related quality of life may increase when patients with a stoma attend patient education--a case-control study

Adaptation to living with a stoma is complex, and studies have shown that stoma creation has a great impact on patients' health related quality of life. The objective was to explore the effect of a structured patient education program on health related quality of life. Therefore, we implemented interventions aimed at increasing health related quality of life during and after hospital admission. We designed a case/control study aimed at adult patients admitted to the surgical ward for stoma creation, irrespective of type of stoma or reason for creation of stoma. We included 50 patients in the study. Health related quality of life was measured before hospital discharge, three months and six months after stoma creation. The program included educational interventions involving lay-teachers, alongside health professional teachers. We found a significant rise in health related quality of life in the intervention group (P