Background: Stroke is a chronic disease requiring continuous and prolonged rehabilitation. A family-based care program can be an effective approach to rehabilitate these patients. This study aimed to determine the effect of family-based care program on the health status of hemiplegic patients with stroke. Methods: In this clinical trial, 40 hemiplegic stroke patients were randomly selected as available and divided into two intervention and control groups. The patients care providers in the intervention group received the home-based care program in addition to routine care at the time of discharge, for four consecutive sessions of 50 to 60 min. This program then was performed by carers at home for four weeks. The patients in the control group received routine care during the discharge. The health status of patients in both groups was evaluated by health status questionnaire before beginning the program, and then one month after the end of the program. Data were analyzed using appropriate statistical tests in SPSS V.21. Results: The results indicated that the difference between the mean scores of the health status of the two groups was not significant before the intervention; however, it was significant after the intervention (P< 0.05). Moreover, the mean scores after the intervention group were significantly higher than the pre-intervention, and the difference was not significant in the control group. Conclusion: Providing home care training programs to family members and contributing them to patient care programs can increase self-care of the patients and improve their health status. Keywords: Stroke; Hemiplegia; Nursing care; Family base care Trial registration number and date of registration: IRCT2015070214333n38, 2015-08-28

Background Stroke is a chronic disease requiring continuous and prolonged rehabilitation. A family-based care program can be an effective approach to rehabilitate the patients. This study aimed at determining the effects of family-based care program on the health status of hemiplegic patients with stroke. Methods In this clinical trial, 40 hemiplegic stroke patients were randomly selected through convenience sampling and allocated to experiment and control groups. The patients’ care providers in the experiment group received the home-based care program for four consecutive sessions (50-60min) in addition to the routine care at the time of discharge. The trainings were then performed by care givers at home for four weeks. The patients in the control group received routine cares during the discharge. The health status of patients in the both groups was evaluated using a health status questionnaire before and one months after implementing the program. The collected data was analyzed using SPSS V.21. Results The results indicated that the difference between the mean scores of the health status of the two groups was not significant before the experiment; however, it was significant after the experiment (P< 0.05). The mean scores after the experiment were significantly higher in the experiment group compared to those of the pre-intervention; this difference was not significant in the control group. Conclusion Providing home care education programs to family members and allowing them to contribute to patient care programs can increase self-care of the patients and improve their health status.