Comparison of the effects of lecture and booklet methods on awareness and attention of parents of children with Thalassemia major

Thalassemia is one of the most important genetic diseases in Iran. Warning of their parents about their children’s disease prevents the related problems and reduces its complications. This study was aimed at comparing the influence of lecture and booklet methods on enhancement of awareness and attentions of parents of children with Thalassemia major. In this interventional study, a total of 90 parents of children with Thalassemia who referred to Hajar hospital for medical treatments, were selected using simple sampling and were randomly divided in three groups of 30 parents. The parents in lecture group attended for seasons of lecture for 30 min. each with 3 weeks interval. A booklet with the same contents as the lecture group was given to the booklet group without any intervention. A questionnaire was designed to gather some information about the disease from parents of all three groups. To determine the statistical relationships, student t-test, Spearman’s correlation and of ANOVA tests were used. No significant differences were found among the three groups tested in terms of the mean age, gender, level of education, job, number of affected children, and age of the children. The results showed that the mean of knowledge before and after the education in the lecture group was 10.53±4.37 and 16.5±4.73 (P<0.05) and in the booklet group was 10.7±3.06 and 14.6±2.7 (P<0.05), respectively. There was no significant difference between lecture and booklet groups based education. After the education, the knowledge in the two groups was significantly more than that in control group (P<0.05). The results showed that lecture and booklet methods have positive effects on increasing of the parent’s knowledge about the disease. Thus, providing of the booklet for the parents, particularly in the region with high prevalence of the disease, is recommended