The impact of a group supportive training on caregiving burden in the mothers of children with thalassemia major

Improving the mental health of mothers of children with thalassemia major who experience great caregiving burden, requires an efficient supportive training to be developed and implemented. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the impact of a group supportive training on caregiving burden in the mothers of children with thalassemia major.
Methods & Materials: A quasi-experimental study (IRCT2016122731612N1) was conducted on 80 mothers of children with thalassemia, referred to Aliasghar hospital in Zahedan in summer 2016. The mothers were selected through convenience sampling method and divided into two intervention and control groups of 40 each. The intervention group received four sessions of supportive training during four weeks. Data were collected by the Caregiver Burden Inventory. SPSS version 21 and independent t test, paired t-test and the analysis of covariance were used to analyze the data.
The mean score of caregiving burden before training in the intervention and control groups were respectively, 86.60±13.55 and 92.37±8.54 and declined to 59.62±9.90 and 89.57±5.83 after the intervention. Furthermore, The caregiving burden score in five dimensions including temporal, developmental, physical, social and emotional was significantly lower in the intervention group than in the control group (P The findings showed that collective supportive training leads to a decrease in caregiving burden in the mothers of children with thalassemia. Thus, this training could be an effective method in reducing the mothers’ caregiving burden. This program could be used in health centers in order to maintain and improve the mental health of mothers.