Effect of Educational Programs on the Anxiety of Mothers Having Children with Type I Diabetes

The most common endocrine disease in childhood and adolescence is type I or insulin-dependent diabetes. Mothers are particularly anxious and worried because of the uncertainty in the role of motherhood and the future of the child. Therefore, the present study was conducted to investigate the effect of educational programs on the anxiety of mothers having children with type I diabetes.

The present semi-experimental research was conducted with a pretest-posttest design on 40 mothers with type 1 diabetic children. By being present in the research environment, encouraging the mothers to participate, and considering the criteria for entering the study, the researcher selected the subjects using the purposive sampling method and randomly placed them in two intervention and control groups. The number of sessions based on the needs and conditions of the patient's mother was considered to be at least three 30-minute sessions with an interval of every other day. The data collection tool was a two-part questionnaire consisting of a demographic information form and the 40-item Spiel Berger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory. The validity and reliability of the questionnaire have been confirmed in various studies. The obtained data were analyzed in the SPSS 21 software with the help of descriptive statistics. The significance level in this study was 0.05.

The data analysis showed that the two groups did not differ significantly in terms of child's age, gender, maternal age, maternal education, number of children, and duration of diabetes. The mean score of dimensions and the total anxiety score of the study samples in the intervention group were improved after the intervention; however, this difference was not significant.

Mothers of children with diabetes in the intervention group had lower scores in anxiety and its dimensions after the training. In other words, the intervention improved the anxiety scores of mothers. According to the results, it can be suggested that at the beginning of children's hospitalization in the ward, their educational needs and their mothers' needs be checked and the educational content be prepared and adjusted accordingly to reduce mothers' anxiety.