Abstract:
Thalassemia is a chronic illness that effected on child health status. Mothers are important person in continuity manage the care for their children with thalassemia. The purposes of this research were to examine factors related to maternal management for children with thalassemia. The participants were 109 mothers of children with thalassemia who came to receive care at Short Stay Service in Ramathibodi Hospital. Mothers who met the study inclusion criteria were randomly selected to participate in the study. Research instruments consisted of Perceived Severity of Condition Questionnaire, Social Support Questionnaire, and Maternal Management for Children with Thalassemia Questionnaire. There reliabilities were .93, .94, and .82 respectively. Data were analyzed using frequency, percent, mean, standard deviation, range and Pearsons correlation coefficients. The results revealed that the maternal management in the dimension of childs daily life has a significantly positive relationship with perceived severity of condition and social support (r= .202, r = .191 respectively). The ability to manage the condition dimension has a significantly positive relationship with perceived severity of condition, duration of illness, age and social support (r = .247, r= .226, r = .147 respectively). The parental mutuality dimension has a significantly positive relationship with family income and social support (r= .246, r = .168 respectively). The impact of condition family life dimension has a significantly negative relationship with perceived severity of condition, age, family income, and social support (r= -.282, r = -.298, r= -.262, r = -.230 respectively). The difficulty of family life dimension has a significantly negative relationship with social support (r= -.261). The effort to manage the condition dimension has a significantly negative relationship with social support (r= -.254). These finding suggest that in designing the interventions to promote the maternal management for children with thalassemia, related factors of each dimension need to be taken into account.