Quality of life in children with thalassemia who referred to thalassemia

Introduction & In addition to control of the disease، improvement of quality of life is important for treatment of the patients suffering from chronic diseases such as thalassemia. The aim of this study was to compare the children with thalassemia and their parents'' point of view about the quality of life (QOL). In this descriptive study، A 90 thalassemia patients with mean age of 17. 29 years (SD = 6. 28) were selected. During the comprehensive visits the SF36 questionnaire were completed. Patients rated SF36 from excellent (100) to poor (0) on nine and eight dimensions of health status. These results were accomplished by a brief medical history and chart review. Data were analyzed using paired t-test، independent t-test and descriptive tests. The mean quality rated by patients and their parents were 70. 25±17. 17 and 67/44±16/59 respectively. Only in social activity (p=0/012) aspect there was significant difference between the two points of view. This study suggests that all patients with thalassemia should undergo QOL assessment so that interventions focused on affected domains can be implemented to improved QOL.