Knowledge of the Caregivers of Thalassemic Children Regarding Thalassemia: A Cross-sectional Study in a Tertiary Care Health Facility of Eastern India

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Caregivers knowledge regarding thalassemia is one of the vital areas in theprevention of the disease. Studies related to caregivers knowledge and its sociodemographic predictorsare very few in number which is helpful in designing interventions across different study settings.OBJECTIVES: the study aimed to find out the knowledge level of caregivers of thalassemic childrenand its sociodemographic determinants.MATERIALS AND METHODS: It was a cross‑sectional observational study conducted in athalassemia day care unit of Eastern India. The study included 328 caregivers of thalassemic childrenattending thalassemia day care unit during May 2015–April 2016. Data were analyzed using StatisticalPackage for the Social Sciences (SPSS) (version 16).RESULTS: Out of 328 caregivers only 47.6% knew about genetic etiology of the disease, while only52.4% and 50.9% knew about premarital counseling and antenatal screening, respectively. Regardingtreatment of the disease, 75.9% knew that both blood transfusion and iron chelation are the treatmentof thalassemia, while only 19.2% and 2.7% of them had knowledge regarding splenectomy and bonemarrow transplantation, respectively. Only 52.7% had satisfactory knowledge regarding the disease. Inmultivariable model, caregivers educational level (adjusted odds ratio, AOR‑3.13 [1.87–5.25]), workingstatus (AOR‑2.18 [1.23–3.86]), place of residence (AOR‑2.05 [1.19–3.52]), and socioeconomicclass (AOR‑2.11 [1.25–3.58]) were significant predictors of their knowledge.CONCLUSION: Caregivers’ knowledge regarding thalassemia was not at all satisfactory. Regularcounseling of caregivers should be done addressing the knowledge lacunae’s among them.