Evaluating the Effectiveness of an Interactive Multimedia Computer-Based Patient Education Program in Cardiac Rehabilitation

The authors have developed a computer-assisted patient education program on exercise and heart health that uses hypermedia-programming techniques. The program design integrated interactive behavioral instructional strategies with attractive multimedia presentations. It also employed user-friendly computer input methods like touch screens to facilitate elderly clients' participation. The learning outcome of patients who were using the computer-assisted educational method was compared to that of patients using the conventional tutorial method. There were 48 cardiac patients (mean age = 58.81) participating in the tutorial-based education, and another 48 (mean age = 56.12) participating in the computer-assisted education program. Results of repeated measures analysis of variance showed that both the computer-assisted instruction (CAI) and tutorial groups had significant improvement in their exercise knowledge (F = 70.68, p, .001) and self-efficacy in applying exercise principles (F = 54.33, p, .002 before and after the training program. A test of between-subjects effects showed that there was a significant main group effect on the exercise knowledge change (F = 29.22, p, .002), but not on the exercise self-efficacy change CF = 1.68, p, .05). In spite of this, the results showed that the CAI group had significantly better exercise knowledge than the tutorial group in both the post-training and follow-up phases. The better learning outcome of the CAI group might be attributed to allowing students to study at their own pace, repeat the difficult parts, and interact with the program contents. Most of the subjects in the computer-assisted group stated they preferred this mode of learning. However, some of them preferred the tutorial method because they could seek help from the tutor when in doubt. From the present results, an interactive multimedia computer-assisted patient education program was demonstrated to be effective for cardiac education. The computer-assisted instructional method is recommended for public health education, such as disease prevention and patients' self-management of chronic diseases.