To determine the information level devoted to stoma care of patients with abdominal stoma

-60-SUMMARYThis study was made to determine the information level devoted to stoma care ofpatients with abdominal stoma.The samples for this study included 78 patients registered to companiesmarketing these stoma care products. The survey form developed by the researcherconsists of two parts. In the first part the socio-demographic features of the patients andthe data about the disease are considered where as in the second part the proposals todetermine the knowledge level are involved. The companies sent the forms to thepatients in envelopes with comeback stamps. The reply sheets were gathered up andevaluated by the same researcher. The coding and evaluation processes were made bythe researcher on the computer by means of SPSS 11.5 program. In evaluating the data,Mann-Whitney U test with dual comparisons and Kruskal-Wallis variance analysis withmultiple comparisons were usedThese are the results obtained; 62.8 % of the patients who participated theresearch was males, 33.3 % was at the ages of 55-64. 74.4 % were married, 34.6 % highschool graduates, 23 % university graduates. 38.5 % of the cases lived with theirpartners, % 7.7% lived alone. The diagnosis of 55.1 % was colorectal cancer, 67.9 %was operated at a university hospital, 59 % had permanent colostomy 52.6 % haveused double parted bags emptied underneath. 64.1 % took care of their stomathemselves 93.6 % expressed no handicaps that hindered their stoma care. 89.7 % saidthat they got information fin the hospital, 41.4 % got the knowledge from multiple sources,51.4 % said that they got information just after the operation 60.3 % said that they goteducation and counseling after being discharged from hospital, 61.7 % got this education-61-from the company attendant.The patients? sexualities, the hospital where they were operated, the informationsources in the hospital and the average of correct answers was insignificant (p>0.05).The correlation between the suitable answers and the education level or whom they gotthis education or the difference between the right answers averages was significant(p<0.05).Proposals were made according to the results of the research.