Mothers' knowledge and Practices regarding care of their children suffering from Thalassemia in Beni -Suef Governorate

Background: Thalassemia is one of the most common genetic disorders worldwide. Mothers of children with thalassemia usually experience many suffering and challenges in caring of their children. Aim: Assess the mother's knowledge and practices regarding care of their children suffering from thalassemia in Beni-Suef Governorate. Design: Across sectional descriptive research design. Setting: The study was conducted at outpatient clinics of Beni–Suef University hospital. Sample: A convenience sample was used for selection of mothers (n=100). Tools: One tool used to achieve the aim of this study: Structural interviewing questionnaire Part I: Socio demographic data of mothers, personal data of the child and medical history of the child. Part II: Mothers’ knowledge regarding care of their children suffering from thalassemia. Part III: Mothers’ reported practices regarding care of their children suffering from thalassemia. Results: 35.0% of the studied mothers had inadequate total knowledge regarding thalassemia.While, 58.0% of the studied mothers had incompetent total reported practices regarding the care of their children suffering from thalassemia. Conclusion: There are highly statistically significant relation between age, kinship, education, job, income, number of their family members and total knowledge at (p value <0.01) .There are highly statistically significant relation between education, income and total mothers’ reported practices at (p value <0.05). Recommendations: Health education programs on knowledge and care practices about thalassemia for mothers of thalassemia children in every public hospital in Egypt.