Mothers’ Perception for their children suffering from Favism

Background: Favism is condition causing adverse reactions to fava beans and certain other triggers,

can be particularly challenging for children and their families. Mothers, often the primary caregivers,

play a critical role in managing their child's condition. Aim: To assess mother’s perception for their

children suffering from favism. Design: A descriptive research design was utilized. Setting: This

study was conducted at pediatrics and hematology outpatient clinics at Helwan General Hospital, El

Nasr Hospital, and 15 May Hospital. Sample: A purposive sample of 197 mothers who had children

diagnosed with favism. Tool: A structured interview questionnaire was divided into 4 parts: part 1:

Demographic data for mothers and their children, Part 2: Mothers’ knowledge regarding favism, Part

3: Mothers’ attitude regarding favism, and Part 4: Mothers’ reported practice about favism. Results:

80.2% of studied mothers had poor level of total knowledge about favism, and 13.7% and 6.1 of them

had an average and good level of knowledge about favism respectively. Also, 86.8% of studied

mothers had negative attitude about favism, while and 57.4% of them had inadequate reported practice

about favism. Conclusion: The majority of studied mothers had poor levels of total knowledge and

negative attitude about favism, while, more than half of them had inadequately reported practices.

Finally, there was a statistically significant positive correlation between total knowledge, total
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reported practices and total attitude of the studied mothers regarding favism. Recommendations:

Developing an educational program to increase mothers’ awareness about favism.