Parents Empowerment regarding Care of their Children with Diabetes Mellitus.

Background: Family centered empowerment model helps parents of children with diabetes mellitus recognize the deficiencies and feel enough power in order to change the situation. Aim of study: Was to assess parents' empowerment regarding care of their children with diabetes mellitus. Research design: A descriptive research design was utilized to conduct this study. Setting: The study was conducted at Hassan Awad clinics affiliated with Health Insurance in Benha City. Sample: Simple random sample by random lottery was used sample was 188. Two tools were used: Tool I: A structured interviewing questionnaire was used to assess (a) Demographic characteristics of parents and their children, (b) Knowledge of parents and (c) Parents reported practices regarding care of children with diabetes mellitus. Tool II: Family empowerment scale to assess level of family empowerment. Results: 41.5% of the studied parents' aged from 25 to less than 35 years old with mean age was 37.52±6.15years. 68.6% of them were female and 91.0% were married. There was positive correlation between total knowledge, total reported practices and total family empowerment among studied parents'. Conclusions: 61.7% of the studied parents' had a good total knowledge regarding diabetes mellitus, 51,1% of studied parents' had satisfactory total reported practices and 24,4% of the studied parents had high total family. Recommendations: Health educational programs should be developed and implemented for parents to educate them with the most current information and proper practices regarding diabetes mellitus.