The feasibility trial of nurse-directed education programme among benign prostatic hyperplasia patients

Does nursing directed education have any impact on severity of symptoms and quality of life among BPH patients? This study aims to develop a nurse-directed education program, to assess and compare the effectiveness of the program on symptoms-severity and quality of life among BPH patients. BPH, one of the most common causes of Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms (LUTS) in elderly men, is caused by a combination of prostate proliferation and lower urinary tract obstruction. A cross-sectional study conducted by Divmehar Kaur et al. 2020 at Rajindra Hospital, Patiala, Punjab concluded that BPH patients' quality of life is negatively affected by LUTS associated with BPH (p ≤ 0.001). Also, a field study conducted by Özcan et al. in Turkey concluded that subjects' BPH-QLS ratings varied statistically significantly (p 0.05) depending on the age, educational attainment, the occurrence of micturition issues, and whether they had ever applied to a medical facility. Then another descriptive study, correlational-type carried by Pinto et al. in 2014 in Singapore found that patients with BPH had a poor health-related quality of life and suffered significantly from their psychological wellbeing. And a RCT conducted in Korea by Jung et al. in 2011 with the aim of examining the benefits of tai chi on patients with benign prostatic hypertrophy's (BPH's) lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTSs) and quality of life (QoL) found that tai chi group's change in overall QoL score was more notable (t = 3.06; p = 0.005) and it demonstrated significant improvements. A quasi-experimental study was conducted among the BPH patients visiting the Urology OPD of AIIMS Jodhpur. Data were collected from 10 BPH patients (5 in each group) using a purposive sampling technique from those over 40 years diagnosed with BPH for the last 6 months after taking informed consent, excluding those being advised for surgery. Self-structured sociodemographic and clinical variables tool, International Prostate Symptom Score (IPSS), and 12-item Short Form Survey (SF-12) were administered. Statistical analysis was performed by employing the SPSS version 23. Chi-square and Mann–Whitney U tests were used. It was seen that there was a significant difference (p-value < 0.05) concerning the IPSS-QOL Index (p-value = 0.008) of symptoms-severity (IPSS) and PCS-12 (p-value = 0.009) of quality of life scale (SF-12) between control and experimental groups after 4th-week post-intervention (nurse-directed education program). Findings from this study will help reinforce designing a cost-effective care delivery system in the care of BPH patients. This program is a novel approach to improving preventive, curative, and rehabilitative services to BPH patients in India.