Effectiveness of peer education in disease self-management of school children and adolescents with chronic diseases: a systematic review

Abstract

Aim: This systematic review aims to investigate the effectiveness of peer education in the self-management of schoolchildren and adolescents with chronic diseases. Methods: This study examined Turkish and English studies in the literature. It included experimental and quasi-experimental studies published in PubMed, Cochrane, and EBSCOhost on the effectiveness of peer education given to children aged 7-18 years about self-management of their disease. As a result of the review, nine articles were included in the study. The results were tabulated and presented in a narrative. Results: The studies included 1,890 participants between the ages of 7 and 29. Some of the studies administering programs identified as "peer education programs" reported that these programs improved self-management, quality of life, well-being, feelings of happiness, academic performance, pulmonary function, self-evaluation, social support, and general communication perceptions, as well as reducing like a teak undesirable behaviours and cost. However, some studies indicated that these programs were not effective in improving the skills of coping with pain, controlling emotions, perceiving social support, self-efficacy, health-care management, quality of life, and glycemic control. Conclusion: The study results showed that peer education programs might facilitate children and adolescents in adapting to the chronic diseases in their life, increase their quality of life, satisfaction, self-management, and self-efficacy skills, improve healthy behaviours, and lessens the intensity of their bad moods and reduce hospital costs. It is recommended that pediatric nurses providing care for patients with chronic diseases learn and utilize peer education methods. Therefore, a more enjoyable education environment could be established, leading pediatric patients to participate and improve the effectiveness of these programs.