Whereas it has been established that it is important to provide a therapeutic strategy in Thalassemia major that includes not only medical but also psychological and social interventions from childhood to adulthood, the modalities and instruments of intervention and methods of evaluation and verification still have to be defined. In the present study, an attempt has been made to obtain & compare thalassemic adolescents to that of healthy adolescents in the areas of psychological factors - anxiety, self-esteem and social functioning. In this study, we prospectively studies 40 adolescents (age 13-19 years) of which 20 had thalassemia major and 20 were normal healthy adolescents. In order to compare the two groups on anxiety and self-esteem, the t-test was used. A semi-structured interview was used to assess psychological factors. In order to find significant difference between two groups on this semi-structured interview, Chi square test was used. The measure of anxiety in the present study is that of trait anxiety stable personality measure which is resistant to situational fluctuation. There was no difference found between two groups in the present study on standardized measure of trait anxiety (t-value 0.96). Most theoretical formulations have stressed that thalassemia can have effect on self-image. Specially, body changes and disruption of activities are seen as lowering the patient self worth however, no significant difference was found between two groups in present study on standardized measure of self-esteem. (t-value 0.70). In the social functioning, the Chi square test found a significant difference in the extent to which the two groups liked the school (p value < 0.05) as 35% of thalassemics like the school a lot against only 10% of healthy. In leisure activity, thalassemic adolescents were more sedentary type (p value < 0.25). In daily functioning, no significant difference was noted among two groups. In illness issues the only question which revealed significant difference were that "are you able to run as much as others" (p value <0.01) Thalassemic adolescents responded to be less able to run and falling more often ill than the healthy adolescents. In regards to future, 50% thalassemics responded to be cured in future whereas 45% of healthy adolescents had responded to having friends as the future hope. In the views on employment prospects, significant difference was found (p value <0.01) where 30% of thalassemics were pessimistic and rest 70% optimistic; whereas 100% of healthy adolescents were optimistic. In the field of marriage and parenthood, majority of adolescents in each group anticipated marriage and parenthood. No significant difference was noted. In conclusion this study shows that, in general, the self-concepts of thalassemics were normal.

Phocon 2005 - Conference Abstracts. Pediatric Oncall [serial online] 2006 [cited 15 April 2006(Supplement 4)];3. Available from:
http://www.pediatriconcall.com/fordoctor/Conference_abstracts/
self_esteem_thalessemia.asp