Patient education: a component of health education

Abstract

Because health education is aimed at influencing behavior capable of affecting health and disease, patient education is a important constituent of health education. Patient education should demonstrably lead to increased self-assurance, reduced anxiety, better insight into one's ailments, more knowledge about the effects of medicines administered, greater self-acceptance after surgery, and improved social contacts among the chronically ill. It well deserves a place in primary health care. Patient education is not widely practiced in the Netherlands. Small-scale experiments are needed to establish effective modes of intervention.