THE EFFECT OF FAMILY CENTERED EDUCATION BASED ON HEALTH BELIEF MODEL ON THE ABSENCE OF SCHOOL AND HOSPITALIZATION OF CHILDREN WITH ASTHMA: A CLINICAL TRIAL STUDY

Background & Aims: Asthma is the most important chronic disease in school-age children. The effects are significant in terms of increased economic costs, decreased quality of life, hospitalization, absenteeism, and death. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of family-centered education based on the Health Belief Model on absenteeism and hospitalization of 6 to 12-year-old children with asthma. Materials & Methods: In this clinical trial study, parents of 64 children with asthma were recruited from Arya Hospital Specialty Center for Asthma and Allergy in Ahvaz, Iran. Purposeful and accessible sampling was performed and the samples were randomly divided into two groups of case and control (32 each). Data were collected through a questionnaire containing demographic information and a researcher-made questionnaire of health beliefs and child asthma remediation indices that were collected twice (before educational intervention and 4 months later). Data were analyzed using SPSS 18 software. Results: A total of 64 samples were included in the present study. Each parent group included 32 children with asthma. According to the Health Belief Model, the mean score of sensitivity, severity, perceived benefits, and barriers and self-efficacy before intervention did not show any significant difference between the two groups (p> 0.05). After intervention, the mean score of case group was significantly higher than the control group (p <0.05). Also, there was no significant difference between the number of absences from school and hospital stay before intervention (p> 0.05). However, these characteristics were significantly lower in the case group after intervention (p <0.05).  Conclusion: Family-based care based on the Health Belief Model leads to improvement of asthma indices in children and consequently prevents additional costs to the patient. Therefore, it is recommended that this model be used to train nursing students.