Economic Evaluation of the Parents of Malnourished Thalassemia Major Patients

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate economic status of the parents of malnourished thalassemia major patients admitted in hospitals of Quetta

Methodology: This cross-sectional study was conducted at Bolan Medical Hospital (BMCH), and Sandeman Provincial Hospital (SPH), Quetta from July to Sept 2020. A sample size of 100 was calculated by using the sample size calculation formula. Parents of malnourished patients, admitted in the pediatric wards were included while rest of the parents with the problems other than the malnutrition were excluded. Data were collected by preformed structured questionnaire via systematic random sampling. Ethical consideration was taken from Institutional Review Board (IRB) of Health Services Academy (has) and the participants prior to the study. Data were analyzed by using the SPSS version 20. 2 Chi square test was applied, P-value < 0.05 was taken as significant

Results: Among 100 respondents, 65 were males and 35 were females. About half (47%) subjects were accompanied with father. 75% of the respondents having 1 to 11 family members, while 64% of the thalassemia major patients told that their parents were cousins. All participants reported no assets like their own home, car, bank balance, and even the animals. About 61% of the parents of thalassemia major had their monthly income in between 10,000 rupees to 15,000 rupees. There was insignificant relationship between gender, average income per month with level of satisfaction (p-value 0.086, 0.298) respectively.

Conclusion: All the participants said that government should launch a nation-wide program for inexpensive treatment of thalassemia major. All of the parents had no assets and their monthly income was very low, so they have to spent their money to come to hospital.