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 an 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.