Effect of Educational Intervention Based on Orem's Self-Care Theory on Health Literacy in Patients with Prostate Cancer under Chemotherapy: A Quasi-Experimental Study

Background and Objective: Prostate cancer is one of the most common cancers and the cause of death among men. Health literacy helps the maintenance and promotion of people's health through improving self-care behaviors. Therefore, this study was conducted to determine the effect of educational intervention based on Orem's self-care theory on the health literacy of patients with prostate cancer undergoing chemotherapy in Shiraz, 2019-2020. Materials and Methods: In this quasi-experimental study, 134 patients with prostate cancer and under chemotherapy were randomly divided into two control and experimental groups (n=67 each). The control group received routine training, while the experimental group received educational intervention based on Orem's self-care theory. Data was collected via the Health Literacy Questionnaire and analyzed using SPSS software (version 21). Results: The mean health literacy scores in the experimental and control groups were obtained at 97.14±13.02 and 98.41±14.99 before the intervention and 100.22±14.14 and 146.02±9.09 after the intervention, respectively. There was a significant difference between the two groups only after the intervention (P<0.05). A significant improvement was also observed in the mean health literacy score of the experimental group, compared to before the intervention (P<0.05). The results indicated a significant relationship between mean health literacy scores and education and resource access methods (P<0.05). Conclusion: The self-care education based on Orem's theory increased health literacy in patients with prostate cancer undergoing chemotherapy. Therefore, educational intervention based on Orem's self-care theory is suggested to promote health literacy in these patients.