Risk factors for psychopathology experienced by caregiver of thalassemia children

Abstract

Caregivers of thalassemia children must have good knowledge, physical, and psychological well-being to cope stress from burden they carry on. The occurrence of psychological changes of caregiver can lead to the emergence of symptoms of psychopathology that disrupts their quality of life. Those psychological changes can also be caused by psychosocial stressors. Therefore, the aim of this study was to know the distribution of psychopathology scores and the related factors among caregivers of thalassemia children. This is an analytic cross-sectional non-paired comparative study. A total of 54 subjects of study were caregivers who attended World Thalassemia Day event 2017 in Bandung, consented and recruited using consecutive sampling method. Caregivers who participated in screening test and was not illiterate. All subjects filled in questionnaire on socio-demographic information, knowledge of thalassemia, and SCL-90 questionnaire, by themselves (self-administered). Subjects who had done a psychological assessment was excluded. The study estimated that more than 75.9% subjects have good knowledge of thalassemia and 42.6% had psychopathologic symptoms. The risk factor that showed significant association with psychopathologic symptoms was occupation (p=0.045, OR 3.3735, 95%CI 1.001 to 11.383). There was no significant relationship found between other risk factors (sex, age, income, marital status, formal education, and knowledge of thalassemia). Thalassemia does not only affect the persons with the disorder but also their caregivers in many aspects including psychosocial well-being. Occupation was associated with psychopathology manifestations among caregivers of thalassemia children. Hence it is important for physicians to give health care management not only to the patients but also their caregivers.

Keywords: Caregiver thalassemia; risk factors; psychopathology manifestations