Anxiety and depression among caregivers of the children with thalassemia, attending at Thalassemia Control Unit of a Rural Tertiary Care Medical College, Darjeeling, West Bengal

Kallol Bhandari; Eashin Gazi; Bidhan Chandra Mandal; Tushar Kanti Saha

doi:10.4103/MJBL.MJBL_16_22

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ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Year : 2022 \| Volume : 19 \| Issue : 2 \| Page : 238-243

Anxiety and depression among caregivers of the children with thalassemia, attending at Thalassemia Control Unit of a Rural Tertiary Care Medical College, Darjeeling, West Bengal Kallol Bhandari¹, Eashin Gazi¹, Bidhan Chandra Mandal², Tushar Kanti Saha¹ ¹ Department of Community Medicine, North Bengal Medical College & Hospital, Darjeeling, West Bengal, India ² Department of Dentistry, North Bengal Medical College & Hospital, Darjeeling, West Bengal, India Correspondence Address: Tushar Kanti Saha Department of Community Medicine, North Bengal Medical College & Hospital, C/O- Dr. Kallol Bhandari, Southern Breeze, Block-III, Flat-B, 1st floor, 1266 Upen Banerjee Road, PO+PS- Parnasree, Near Behala Flying Club, Kolkata 700060, West Bengal India Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None DOI: 10.4103/MJBL.MJBL_16_22

Background of Study: Caregivers of the children with thalassemia often experienced a life with varied degree of anxiety and depression due the chronic illness like of their children. Mothers as the main caregivers for most of the thalassemic children suffers with different forms of psychological problems. Objectives: The aim of this study was to assess the levels of anxiety and depression of the caregivers of children with Thalassemia and also to find out sociodemographic factors associated with their anxiety and depression. Materials and Methods: Descriptive cross-sectional study conducted in Thalassemia Control Unit (TCU) of North Bengal Medical College (NBMC) from December 2018 to April 2019. Complete enumeration method was used to include 136 caregivers of children (≤12 years) with thalassemia. Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) and Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) was used to assess the levels of anxiety and depression. Collected data were entered into MS-Excel and analyzed by using SPSS software program, version 22.0. Results: Mean age of caregivers was 34.3 (SD ± 1.4 years). Most of caregivers were female (89%) and had educational qualification up to primary school (45.6%). Majority (70.6%) of the caregivers were the mothers of the children. Most of the study participants (54.4%) had moderate depression followed by 30.1% with mild mood disturbances. Majority (69.9%) of the study participants had mild anxiety and 30.1% moderate anxiety. The median (IQR) of BDI score was 21(23–18) and median (IQR) of BAI score was 20(22–18). Conclusions: Early counseling, psychotherapy, appropriate treatment should be prioritized. Social support, community involvement with their full participation should be emphasized.



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