Knowledge and practices of parents and caretakers towards preventipn of sickle cell crises in children with sickle cell disease at the university teaching hospital (Lusaka).

Abstract

The main objective of the study was to determine knowledge and practices of parents/caretakers with children with sickle cell disease towards prevention of sickle cell crises at Hematology clinic of the University Teaching Hospital. The study hypothesized that there is an association between knowledge and prevention of crises and the following factors; Information, Education and Communication given to parents/caretakers concerning preventive measures, level of education of a parent/caretaker and economic status of a family. Exploratory, quantitative, non experimental study design was used. A simple random sampling method without replacement was used and data was collected using an interview schedule from fifty (50) respondents who were parents/caretakers to children with SCO at the University teaching Hospital. Data were collected, sorted, coded and entered on SPSS spreadsheet and analysed using SPSS version 16.0. Frequency tables, pie charts and cross tabulations were used for easy understanding, interpretation and to summarize a large data set in a visual form which require minimal additional explanation of the study findings. The study revealed that 52% of the respondents had adequate knowledge on prevention of sickle cell crises. Further analysis revealed that majority (64%) of the respondents had positive practices towards prevention of crises. It was observed that 83% of the respondents who had a high family income defined as Kl 000 000 and above had positive practices towards prevention of sickle cell crises as compared to 48% of the respondents who earned below K500 000 but had positive practices. Respondents who went up to secondary and tertiary level of education (84% and 83% respectively) had positive practices towards prevention of crises while all (100%) those who never went to school had negative practices. The study further revealed that 70% of the respondents who practiced cultural methods in the prevention of crises had inadequate knowledge compared to 30% who practiced cultural methods but had adequate knowledge. The study revealed that there is relationship between knowledge, economic status of the family, level of education of parents and caretakers and practices towards prevention of crises.