An investigation into the relationship between care burden and adaptive behaviors of mothers of children with thalassemia

Mothers of children with thalassemia as primary caregivers face problems with treatment and care issues. These problems as consequences of child’s illness often lead to inappropriate adaptive behaviors. The aim of this study was to disclose the relationship between caregiver burden and adaptive behaviors in mothers of children with thalassemia.

In this cross-sectional study, 70 mothers of children with thalassemia major who had referred to the Thalassemia Clinic of Ali Asghar Hospital, Zahedan, in 2016 were studied. Data were gathered using a demographic questionnaire, the Coping Health Inventory for Parents (CHIP), and the Caregiver Burden Scale (CBS). The results were analyzed in SPSS 22 using descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation coefficient, and stepwise multiple regression.

The mean scores of mothers’ care burden and adaptive behaviors were 56.92 ± 12.84 and 57.07 ± 19.84, respectively. It was observed that while care burden has a significant inverse relationship with the total score of adaptive behaviors (r = -0.41, p < 0.001), it displays a direct significant relationship with mother's education (r = 0.26 p = 0.05). The results of multiple regression analysis suggested that the two components of adaptive behaviors and mother’s education could predict 18% of changes in mothers’ care burden. 

According to the results, it is recommended to utilize appropriate educational and supportive interventions for improving the mothers' adaptive behaviors and continuous evaluation of these interventions is necessary.