Efficacy of therapeutic patient education in chronic diseases and obesity

Objective: To evaluate the clinical, methodological and reporting aspects of systematic reviews and meta-analyses in order to determine the efficacy of therapeutic patient education (TPE).

Methods: A thorough search of the medical and nursing literature recorded in MedLine database from 1999 to August 2009 was conducted using the keywords: patient education, efficacy, diabetes, asthma, COPD, hypertension, cardiology, obesity, rheumatology, and oncology.

Results: Thirty five relevant meta-analyses were identified and initially selected for critical analyses (598 studies concerning approximately 61,000 patients). The detailed description of the educative intervention was present in 4% of articles whereas in 23% the interventions were briefly described. In the majority of studies, the educative interventions were only named (49%) or totally absent (24%). The majority of studies reported improvement of patient outcomes due to the TPE (64%), 30% of studies reported no effect of TPE and 6% of the analysed reviews and meta-analyses reported worsening of measured outcomes.

Conclusion: Patient education could improve patient outcomes. The high benefit from TPE was shown by articles with detailed description of educational intervention as well as by those who report multidimensional and multidisciplinary educational intervention.

Practice implications: The impact of therapeutic patient education on health outcomes is 50-80%.