Educational intervention in quality of life and knowledge of metabolic syndrome

Abstract

Objective: To assess the effectiveness of an educational health promotion program in improving quality of life and knowledge domains of metabolic syndrome. Methods: This is a non-randomized clinical trial including 61 adults with metabolic syndrome (49±7.6 years). Participants were intentionally divided into two groups: intervention (n=31) and control (n=30). The primary outcome was the change in knowledge about metabolic syndrome and its risk factors, and the secondary, the improvement in quality of life (SF-36) assessed in two moments, at baseline and at the end of intervention (six months). Mann Whitney and Wilcoxon U tests were used, adopting a significance level of 5%. Results: The educational program improved the body ache domain of quality of life in the intervention group (p=0.01), although with no statistical difference between the groups. Knowledge about hypertension and diabetes (p=0.02), metabolic syndrome (p<0.001) and general knowledge (p<0.001) showed a significant increase in the intervention group at six months, which did not occur in the control group. Conclusion: The educational program can be an effective strategy to improve quality of life, highlighting the domain of body ache and increasing knowledge of metabolic syndrome in adults with the syndrome.