Abstract:Objective To explore the effect of systematic health education on the incidence of catheter-related infection (CRI)in hemodialysis outpatients. Methods Patients who underwent vascular catheter dialysis at the outpatient hemodialysis center of a tertiary first-class hospital were selected with prospective surveillance method. Patients from the second quarter of 2023 to the first quarter of 2024 were as the control group, and those from the second quarter of 2024 to the first quarter of 2025 were as the intervention group. Systematic health education was implemented to intervene patients in the intervention group, and the incidence of vascular CRI was compared between two groups of patients. Results 61 cases (catheterization No.=75 ) in the intervention group and 63 cases (catheterization No.=70) in the control group were selected for analysis. In the intervention group, 15 cases of dialysis CRI occurred, with case incidence of 24.59%. sAmong them, there were 9 cases of local infection and 6 cases of vascular access-related bloodstream infection (BSI) (including 1 case of BSI caused by pulmonary infection). In the control group, 31 cases of dialysis CRI occurred, with an incidence of 49.21%. Among them, there were 25 cases of local infection and 6 cases of vascular access-related BSI. The incidence of dialysis CRI in patients in the intervention group was lower than the control group, difference was statistically significant (P=0.005). The incidence of local infection in patients in the intervention group was lower than in the control group (P=0.002). The incidences of infection in patients of three types of catheterization before and after intervention all decreased, with a statistically significant difference in the tunneled internal jugular venous catheterization (P=0.003). Among patients without infection, those in the intervention group had longer catheterization days compared with the control group ([201.49±11.48] days vs [119.10±17.21] days, P<0.001). After implementing systematic health education, patients in the intervention group showed a significant improvement in the qualified rate of cognition on six dimensions of catheter home management ability (catheterization during exercise and daily life, daily observation on catheter, information acquisition, catheter abnormality handling, and maintenance compliance), differences were all statistically significant (all P<0.05). Conclusion Adopting systematic health education can effectively reduce the incidence of CRI in hemodialysis outpatient.