The Impact of Educational Counseling Program on Quality of Life of Thalassemia Patients

[Background]Thalassemia is the most common hereditary disease. The presence of many physical and psychological problems can affect the quality of life of patients with thalassemia. The present study aimed at evaluating the effect of educational counseling program on the quality of life of thalassemia patients in city of Neyshabur in 2016.[Methods]This semi-experimental study, which was conducted using pretest and posttest method, was done on 20 thalassemia patients, who referred to thalassemia clinic and were treated with educational counseling intervention. The participants were assigned into 5- member groups and received 5 sessions of training. After the sessions, 2 phone consultations were provided to the participants with a one- week gap, and the participants’ questions were answered. Sf-36 Quality of Life Questionnaire was completed before and 1 month after the intervention, and data were analyzed by independent t test, Pearson correlation coefficient, Spearman, Mann-Whitney, ANOVA, Kruskal-Wallis, and Wilcoxon tests using SPSS software Version 16.[Results]The mean age of the patients was 23.06 ± 10.87. The analysis of the test revealed that comparison of the mean before and after the educational counseling intervention in the physical and mental health subscales of SF-36 quality of life questionnaire was significant. Mean scores of quality of life in all dimensions were also significantly increased after the intervention (P < 0.05). However, this difference was not reported for limitation of the role of physical problems, general health, vitality, and cheerfulness (P < 0.05).[Conclusions]According to the above results, it is suggested that educational counseling programs be used to improve the quality of life of patients with thalassemia.