Fatemeh Gharaati
1 
, Teamur Aghamolaei
2* , zahra hosseini
2 , Sayed Hossein Davoodi
3 , Laleh Hassani
2 , Razieh Mohamadi
4 , Shokroallah Mohsseni
5 , Moussa Soleimani-Ahmadi
2 1 Department of Health Promotion and Education, Faculty of Health, Hormozgan University of Medical Sciences, Bandar Abbas, Iran
2 Department of Social Determinants in Health Promotion Research Center, Faculty of Health, Hormozgan University of Medical Sciences, Bandar Abbas, Iran
3 Department of Nutrition Research, National Nutrition and Food Technology Research Institute, Faculty of Nutrition Sciences and Food Technology, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
4 Department of General Physician, Faculty of Medicine Hormozgan University of Medical Sciences, Bandar Abbas, Iran
5 Department of public health, Faculty of Health, Hormozgan University of Medical Sciences, Bandar
Abstract
Introduction: One way to improve the quality of life of the patients with thalassemia major is to enable them through education. The present research aimed to explore the effects of an educational intervention through mobile phones on self-care behaviors of the patients with thalassemia major Methods: In this quasi experimental study, which was done from May to January in 2017, 91 patients were enrolled who were suffering from thalassemia major.The census sampling method was performed with random allocation of interventional and control groups. Educational intervention was only applied to the intervention group. The study instrument was a questionnaire which was filled out by the patients before and two months after the educational intervention. For data analysis, statistical tests including independent samples t-test, paired-samples t-test, Mann-Whitney test and Wilcoxon test, were used through SPSS v.13 software. Results: Prior to the intervention, the mean scores of knowledge, attitude and self-care behaviors were not significantly different between the intervention and control groups. After the intervention, , however, there was a statistically significant increase in the aforementioned scores in the intervention group (P˂0.05), but there was no statistically significant increase in scores of the control group(P>0.05). Conclusion: The present findings showed the positive effect of the mobile-phone mediated education on knowledge, attitude and self-care behaviors of the patients with thalassemia major. Therefore, the use of mobile phone is recommended as an effective way of transferring instructional material as related to self-care to patients with thalassemia major particularly when access to them is limited.