The effect of family-centered empowerment model on the knowledge and attitudes of mothers with thalassemia children

Thalassemia disease is providing many problems for patients, families and health care system. In family-centered empowerment model, individuals feel threatened with knowing the disease and its complications. This study was aimed at determine the effectiveness of family-centered empowerment model on the mothers’ knowledge and attitudes about thalassemia disorder. This semi-experimental study was performed on 86 thalassemic children that were randomly divided into case and control group. The research tool was researcher maker questionnaire of parents’ knowledge and attitude about the disease and it was used after determination content validity and reliability (internal correlation). The next was intervention stage. Data analysis showed that before the intervention, the average of mother’s awareness and attitude in testing group was 12/98(±4.99), 13/58(±13.9) and in control group was12/47(±3.87), 11/02(±11.26).There was no significant difference between average of knowledge and attitude in testing and control groups (p>0.05). But after performing model in the test group, the average of mother’s awareness and attitudes was 18/86(±3.63),22/09(±10.02) and in control group was13/16(±3.65), 12/13(±10.83), that shows significant differences between two groups (p<0.05). The results of this study indicates that implementation of the family-centered empowerment model is effective on knowledge and attitudes of mothers of children with thalassemia. Using of this model was suggested in care of thalassemia patients for improvement mothers’ knowledge and attitude about disease.