Women empowerment through health information seeking: a qualitative study

Today, women empowering is an important issue. Several methods have been introduced to empower women. Health information seeking is one of the most important activities in this regard. A wide range of capabilities have been reported as outcomes of health information seeking in several studies. As health information seeking is developed within personal-social interactions and also the health system context, it seems that the qualitative paradigm is appropriate to use in studies in this regard. This study aimed to explore how women's empowerment through health information seeking is done. In this qualitative content analysis study, data collection was done with regard to inclusion criteria, through purposive sampling by semi-structured interviews with 17 women and using documentation and field notes until data saturation. Qualitative data analysis was done constantly and simultaneous with data collection. Four central themes were emerged to explain women's empowerment through health information seeking that included: a] Health concerns management with three subcategories of Better coping, Stress management, Control of situation, b] Collaborative care with two subcategories of Effective interaction with health professions and Participation in health decision making c] Individual development d] Self-protection with four sub- categories of Life style modification, Preventive behaviors promoting, Self-care promoting, and medication adherence. The results of this study indicate the importance of women empowerment through foraging their health information seeking rights and comprehensive health information management

[ effect of family-centered empowerment model on the knowledge and attitudes of mothers with thalassemia children]

Objective: Thalassemia disease is providing many problems for patients, families and health care system. In family-centered empowerment model, individuals feel threatened with knowing the disease and its complications. This study was aimed at determine the effectiveness of family-centered empowerment model on the mothers' knowledge and attitudes about thalassemia disorder

Methods: This semi-experimental study was performed on 86 thalassemic children that were randomly divided into case and control group. The research tool was researcher maker questionnaire of parents' knowledge and attitude about the disease and it was used after determination content validity and reliability [internal correlation]. The next was intervention stage

Results: Data analysis showed that before the intervention, the average of mother's awareness and attitude in testing group was 12/98 [+/-4.99], 13/58 [+/-13.9] and in control group was12/47 [+/-3.87], 11/02 [+/-11.26].There was no significant difference between average of knowledge and attitude in testing and control groups [p>0.05]. But after performing model in the test group, the average of mother's awareness and attitudes was 18/86 [+/-3.63],22/09 [+/-10.02] and in control group was13/16 [+/-3.65], 12/13 [+/-10.83], that shows significant differences between two groups [p<0.05]

Conclusion: The results of this study indicates that implementation of the family-centered empowerment model is effective on knowledge and attitudes of mothers of children with thalassemia. Using of this model was suggested in care of thalassemia patients for improvement mothers' knowledge and attitude about disease