impact of education on awareness towards reproductive health in women with beta-thalassemia major

Objectives: this study aimed to investigate the effect of nursing educational programs on the awareness of females with β- thalassemia major (β-tm) regarding their disease and reproductive health. methods: thirty-nine consecutive female patients with β-tm (age range between 20 and 32 years) participated in this interventional pre-post study. all patients attended the thalassemia clinic of dastgheib hospital, a referral governmental center in shiraz, southern iran. awareness of patients regarding reproductive health was evaluated by a designed questionnaire. the intervention consisted of nursing educational program regarding important issues related to reproductive health of female patients with beta-tm. knowledge of patients was revaluated and compared with their knowledge before education. data were analyzed using spss software v.21 using paired t-test, pearson correlation test and mann-whitney test. results: total awareness score significantly increased after education (mean ± standard deviation (sd): 16.12 ± 1.67 vs. 13.69 ± 2.35, p < 0.001). increased knowledge of patients after the intervention was not significantly associated with educational level or with age of the patients (p = 0.058 and p = 0.395, respectively). conclusions: an educational program can be helpful in increasing awareness of females with β-tm regarding their disease and reproductive health issues resulting in increased life expectancy and quality of life.