Effectiveness of the Planned Teaching Program on Knowledge and Self-care Behavior of School-Age Children with Thalassemia

Abstract

The objective of this one-group pretest-posttest design was to compare the scores of the knowledge and self-care behaviors of the school-aged children with thalassemia. Participants were 30 school-aged children (age 6-12) who had been diagnosed with thalassemia and enrolled in the pediatric ward at a Chiang Kham hospital in the northern part of Thailand between July and August 2022. These participants were selected by purposive sampling. The data collecting instruments included a questionnaire on demographic data, knowledge, and self-care behavior of school-age children with thalassemia. The research instrument was the improved lesson plan on self-care for children with thalassemia. The quality of the instruments was validated by three experts. The Index of Item-Objective Congruence was at 1.00. The reliabilities of self- care knowledge reported in questionnaires in school- aged with thalassemia was determined by a coefficient of 0.93 using Cronbach’s Alpha Coefficient. The data were analyzed by descriptive statistics. The mean difference scores of knowledge and self-care behavior of school age children with thalassemia were compared using a paired t-test.

The results showed that after attending the planned teaching program, the average score of knowledge of school-age children with thalassemia was significantly higher than before attending the program (p-value< 0.01). The average score of self-care behavior of school-age children with thalassemia was high, when compared to before attending the program (p-value< 0.01). This research could be a guideline for creating a program to develop  a self-care ability for school-aged children with thalassemia in order to enhance their ability to take care of themselves.