The majority of children in both groups had thalassemia
at moderate levels of illness severity. All children with
thalassemia received oral drugs and blood transfusions regularly.The
duration of their illness experience was in the range
1–11 years, with the majority being less than six years. In the
experimental group, children with thalassemia ranged in
age from 2.6 to 14 years and consisted of 23 females and
3 males. In the control group, the age range was from two to
14 years and consisted of 26 females and 4 males. In both
experimental and control groups, the majority of primary
family caregivers were females and ranged in age from 30 to
44 years. The majority of family caregivers were mothers
(73%) caring for their children. Family caregivers spent 6.7 to
6.9 h per day taking care of their children. The predominant
religion was Buddhist (98%). All the family caregivers had
received at least elementary school education.There were no
significant differences in characteristics of primary family
caregivers and children with thalassemia between the experimental
and control groups