study of caregiver burden in mothers with thalassemia children in Jiroft, 2013

Thalassemia is among the most prevalent hereditary disease in the south of Iran. Children with thalassemia need care from the first years of their life. Mothers play the key role in provision of care to these children. This may cause caregiver burden. Therefore, most women need support. This study was designed to assess caregiver burden in mothers of children with thalassemia in Jiroft, Iran. This descriptive-correlative survey was performed in Jiroft in 2013. The participants included 160 mothers of thalassemia children with inclusion criteria who visited the thalassemia center of the city. Instruments included demographic information and the caregiver burden questionnaire. Data were analyzed by SPSS v.21 using Pearson correlation and multivariant regression tests. The significance level was considered below 0.005 (p<0.005). Findings show that 49% of mothers (n=69) reported moderate to severe caregiver burden. The total scores of caregiver burden had significant positive correlation with maternal age (p= 0.014, r= 0.194) and were inversely correlated with income (p= 0.027, r=-0.175). Given the fact that nearly half of the mothers with thalassemia children had moderate to severe caregiver burden, health authorities and nurses in contact with these mothers have to pay special attention to this issue.