The effectiveness of an educational intervention on maternal management of children with B- thalassemia and their quality of life

Abstract EN

Background : thalassemia causes significant morbidity and mortality in the affected individuals and a psychological burden to other family members.

Increasing the ability of the child for self-care and proper maternal management, in addition to proper counseling are expected to have good impact on disease management.

Aims : the aim of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of educational intervention on maternal management and the quality of life of children with 15-thalassemia.

Methods : the study was conducted at Hematology / Oncology Unit, Pediatric Departments, Tanta university Hospital, with the total number of sixty children with thalassemia, their ages ranged 6-16 years.

All of them undergo chelating therapy, interview questionnaire sheet and observation checklist was used to collect data as a pre and posttest to assess maternal management of desferoxamine.

Data were collected in different 4 phases, initial phase, and development of educational intervention, implementation and evaluation phase.

Results: results of this study revealed that educational intervention for mothers of B-thalassemia children had a significant effect in their understanding of the nature of the disease, and management of chelated child.

Accordingly, there was a significant decrease in the side effects of chelation therapy after implementation of the program.

Unfortunately the level of mother's knowledge regresses significantly 3 months after stopping the program.

A significant improvement in maternal management as well as the quality of life of thalassemia children.

Conclusion : providing educational interventions for mothers of thalassemia children improved their performance and minimizing the reported side effects of chelation therapy for short time.

So, we recommend continuous educational intervention to refresh their knowledge and improve their skills.