Introduction:

Patients and their caregivers’ knowledge about the disease is essential in the self-care process to prevent its progression and improve quality of life. Awareness of the information needs of these patients can help design educational strategies that will enhance clinical outcomes.

Objectives:

To identify the information needs of patients with cirrhosis of the liver and their relationship with quality of life.

Methods:

A cross-sectional, observational study. We designed a questionnaire considering the information collected in focus groups and previous publications to determine the priorities of patients and health personnel regarding the educational needs of patients. To establish the relationship between educational needs and quality of life, the SF36V2 survey was conducted. The perceived need for some support services and the actual use of some of them were identified to estimate their relationship with the patient’s quality of life.

Results:

The five needs prioritized by patients were decompensations/complications, progression/prognosis, pharmacotherapy, liver cancer, and liver transplant. There was no strong relationship between information needs and quality of life.

Conclusions:

The information needs of patients with cirrhosis of the liver may vary depending on the etiology, the existence of comorbidities, and other sociodemographic variables such as sex and age. There are gaps between the information needs perceived by health personnel and the needs reported by patients.

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