Knowledge and Practices of Caregivers Towards Home-Based Care of Sickle Cell Anaemia Among Children Below Ten Years of Age Attending Jinja Regional Referral Hospital, Jinja City

Abstract

Sickle cell disorders can be managed cost-effectively by programs that integrate treatment with early carrier detection through screening and genetic counselling. However, sickle cell disease is not well known or recognized by many individuals as a significant health problem with major complications, thus a large number of Ugandans are carriers of the trait but they are unaware of their status. Therefore, this study sought to determine the knowledge and practices of mothers towards the home-based care of sickle cell anaemia among children below 10 years at Jinja regional referral hospital in Jinja City. Simple random sampling was used to select the required number of participants, n equals 30. The questionnaire used consist of closed and open-ended questions to collect both qualitative and quantitative data. The data was analysed using descriptive statistics and presented in tables and figures. The study findings revealed that 59.3% of respondents had poor knowledge while 40.7% of respondents had good knowledge concerning home-based care of their children with SCA. 52.9% of the respondents had good practices while 47.1% had poor practices about homebased care of their children with SCA. So, it was concluded that caregivers lack adequate knowledge about home-based care of children with SCA with average good practices. Therefore, there is a need for government to come up with programs aimed at teaching mothers and the communities at large to impact knowledge on how to manage SCA. Health education should be done regularly and expanded to couples intending to marry and also screened during antenatal visits. There is also a need for more sensitization of the general public both by the government and professionally experienced health workers pertaining SCD in Uganda. Keywords: Sickle cell anaemia, Genetic counselling, Significant health problem, Children below 10 years, Mothers, Health workers.