Abstract:
Thalassemia is a genetic blood disease which needs continuing care. Otherwise,
children may experience some health problems that affect their health-related quality of life.
This correlational research aimed to study the relationships between the perception of symptoms,
perception of health status, social support and health-related quality of life among children with
Thalassemia. Research participants were 90 children with -thalassemia major or -thalassemia/
Hb E who received care at hematological clinic, Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya Hospital, Ayutthaya
province.Simple random sampling was used to recruit samples from April to June 2018.
The research instruments consisted of a numerical rating scale to measure perception of health
status, perception of symptoms questionnaire, social support questionnaire and health-related
quality of life questionnaire. The reliabilities of questionnaire were .74, .87 and .90 respectively.
Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and Spearmans rank correlation coefficient.
The result found that there was a low, positive correlation between perception of health
status and health-quality of life among children with thalassemia (r s = .226, p=.032) while there
was a low, negative relationship between social support and health-quality of life among children
with thalassemia (rs= -.222, p= .035). However, there was no correlation between perception of
symptoms and health-quality of life (p> .05).
These results suggest that nurses should design the interventions to promote perception
of health status and social support for children with thalassemia to improve health-related quality
of life