European Journal of Molecular & Clinical Medicine

Abstract

Introduction:
Psychosocial problems of patients and family members of beta thalassemia patients are among important issues. This study was performed to determine the psychosocial problems of patients with thalassemia and their siblings compared to the control group.
Methods:
This descriptive-comparative study was carried out using structural interviews and a checklist of behavioral symptoms of children. Samples of this study were 236 children, including 59 thalassemic children aged 4 to 16 years, 59 siblings of these without chronic disease as the case group and 118 healthy children with the same age condition as control group. Data were analyzed using the tests of chi-square, McNemar, Wilcoxon, and independent- paired t-tests.
Results:
The mean age of the children in this research was 9.91 with a standard deviation of ±3.41%. The mean of psychosocial problems was 17.54% based on the questionnairewith a standard deviation of ±10.10%. 37.3% of thalassemic children, 20.3% of siblings and 20.8% of control group had social psychological problems. Chi-square test shows that psychosocial disorders in children with thalassemia was more than control group (p <0.05).
Conclusion:
The families of patients with thalassemia, especially the siblings of the patients mentioned, should be considered in the care plan for these patients; this is because of the high prevalence of psychosocial problems in this group compared to healthy children.