Abstract: Objective To explore the effectiveness of KAP (knowledge, attitude, belief, and practice) on the health education to patients with spinal tuberculosis. Methods Four hundred and thirty eight patients with spinal tuberculosis treated in People’s Liberation Army (PLA) 309 Hospital spinal surgery department from May to October 2016 who signed the informed consent form and joined the research voluntarily, excluding other non-spinal diseases and those patients with grade A, B by nerve function Frankel grade. The patients treated from May to July were enrolled in the control group, and those treated from August to October were enrolled in the intervention group. The control group received routine nursing care, and the intervention group received the same nursing care as the control group, but also added knowledge evaluation of spinal tuberculosis, and took a series of methods to enhance the beliefs of patients and their families, and required the patients and relatives to record daily nursing behavior. According to the record, the responsible leader continuously improved the nursing content. The activities of daily living (ADL) scores, the treatment compliance and the satisfaction of the nursing service at the time of discharge were compared between two groups at the time of discharge, 3 months and 6 months after discharge. Results At 6 months after discharge in the intervention group and the control group ADL scores were 90.12±4.02 and 88.13±6.78 respectively, with a significant difference between two groups (t=-2.87. P=0.00).Dietary compliance between two groups at the time of discharge and 3 months of discharge showed significant differences (10.59±0.78 vs 10.88±0.81, t=2.13, P=0.03; 9.08±0.23 vs 10.26±0.91, t=3.89, P=0.02). The scores of medication, dietary and exercise in the intervention group were significantly higher than the control group at 6 months after discharge (7.98±0.21 vs 8.05±0.31, t=2.22, P=0.04; 8.59±0.82 vs 10.14±0.61, t=2.01, P=0.00; 9.22±0.53 vs 10.98±0.78, t=3.51, P=0.01). The total satisfaction scores of nursing service at discharge were 96.77±7.52 and 85.68±8.77 among the intervention and control groups, with a significant difference (t=6.51, P=0.00). Conclusion KAP nursing mode can improve the activities of daily living and treatment compliance of patients with spinal tuberculosis after operation。 In the meantime, it also improved the satisfaction of the nursing service. The application of KAP health education can improve the patient’s health attitude and health behaviors, which will accele-rate the recovery of the patients.

Key words: Tuberculosis, spine, Patient discharge, Health knowledge, attitudes, practice, Health edu-cation, Outcome and process assessment (health care)