Can educational programs help ease parental anxiety following their child first febrile convulsion?

ABSTRACT

Compared to other pediatric emergencies, febrile convulsions [FC], despite having an excellent prognosis, are a main cause of considerable anxiety among mothers of children faced with their child's first febrile convulsion. Consequently, one of the physician's most important responsibilities in the management of pediatric febrile convulsions is to educate and guide mothers on how to reduce their anxiety. This study was performed on mothers whose children had been admitted to Mofid Children's Hospital following a first febrile convulsion, to determine the effect of education on lowering the levels of maternal anxiety after their child's first febrile convulsion. In this sequential control clinical trial, 84 volunteering mothers were divided in two matched groups, the intervention and the controls. Maternal anxiety levels were determined in both groups by the State Trait Anxiety Inventory [STAI] standard questionnaire [pretest]. Following this, the intervention group of mothers underwent face-to-face education for 3 hours, whereas no intervention was used for the control group. After nine days, anxiety levels were determined in the two groups using the same questionnaire [post-test]. The data was analyzed using the Mann-Whitney, the Wilcoxon Signed Rank Sum, and the McNemar tests, and chi-square analysis. Results show that in the intervention group, maternal anxiety decreased significantly [p<0.001], whereas no significant difference was seen in the control group. This study demonstrates that maternal education on FCs significantly reduces maternal anxiety, in coping with stress following their child's first febrile convulsion, and considering the results of similar studies, educational programs are highly recommended for mothers having children who suffer from the condition