Abstract
BackgroundThalassemia is the most common genetic disorder in humans that can be controlled and treated by, premarital screening, prenatal diagnosis and abortion. Aortion can be a critical issue for many families based on the cultural and religious backgrounds and have different consequences for couples, such as emotional divorce. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate the association between fear of abortion and emotional divorce in women with minor thalassemia in Yazd City, Iran.Materials and methodsThis retrospective study was conducted on 61 women with minor thalassemia (case group) and 100 healthy women (control group), who referred to health centers in Yazd. The census sampling was applied to select the case group and multistage (cluster andsimple) random sampling was adopted to select the control group. Data were collected using Gutman Emotional Divorce Questionnaire and a researcher made scale for measuring fear of Abortion. Data were analyzed by SPSS using descriptive statistics and chi-square, independent t-test, Pearson correlation, and linear regression.ResultsThe mean scores of emotional divorce (6.62 vs. 4.26) and fear of abortion (25.85 vs. 17.4) were higher in the case than control group (P ˂ 0.01). There was a positive and significant correlation between fear of abortion and emotional divorce in the case (P ˂ 0.05, r = 0.275) and control (P ˂ 0.05, r = 0.570) groups. Fear of abortion in the case group predicted 25% of the variance in emotional divorce.ConclusionGiven the high level of fear of abortion in women with minor thalassemia and its effect on increasing the emotional divorce, designing and implementing psychological interventions with ongoing follow-up are recommended for thalassemia carrier couples.
Highlights
Thalassemia is the most common genetic disorder in humans
Given the high level of fear of abortion in women with minor thalassemia and its effect on increasing the emotional divorce, designing and implementing psychological interventions with ongoing follow-up are recommended for thalassemia carrier couples
The mean score of emotional divorce and fear of abortion was higher in the case group than the control group (Table 2)
Summary
Thalassemia is the most common genetic disorder in humans. 150 million people carry the beta thalassemia gene throughout the world [1]. Like many countries in the region, has a relatively large number of patients with thalassemia. Beta thalassemia major is the most common type of thalassemia in Iran. More than 30 thousand people are affected and about 2–3 million people carry the disease in Iran [4, 5]. Thalassemia is the most common genetic disorder in humans that can be controlled and treated by, premarital screening, prenatal diagnosis and abortion. The present study aimed to investigate the association between fear of abortion and emotional divorce in women with minor thalassemia in Yazd City, Iran
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