Anxiety levels of families of children patients who have febrile convulsion

ABSTRACT ANXIETY LEVELS OF FAMILIES OF CHILDREN PATIENTS WHO HAVE FEBRILE CONVULSION Febrile convulsions is not only affecting the patient, with that affects the family which is also a factor. An excessive amount of fear and anxiety occurs on the families of children had febrile convulsions. This anxiety of families following febrile convulsion is trying to be explained by the person's socioeconomic level, education level and age factor. There are many few studies conducted about the post febrile convulsions family anxiety.The purpose of this study is to determine the degree of anxiety of families, their children have a febrile convulsion history. Our study has been conducted among the families of 100 children patient between the ages of 6 months to 5 years who have febrile seizure and the kontrol group families of 100 children patient with the same age group who had inflammatory disease previously. Stai Tx 1 is state anxiety indicator which consists of 20 question and Stai Tx 2 is persistence anxiety indicator which also consists of 20 question, asked to patient and kontrol groups. The levels of anxieties of the patients are identified as mild, moderate and severe by the Stai Test points. The relation between occurred anxiety level and financial situation, education level, literateness is determined. 98 of 100 patients are stated as mild and moderate state anxiety (p<0.05) and 78 out of patients had mild and moderate continuity anxiety. The mean of state anxiety point was 66.76±7.71 and mean of continuity anxiety point was 46.90±8.53. When it is looked at the patients with anxiety, severe state anxiety is stated as statistically significant for those who have moderate financial situation, compared to control grup. Severe state anxiety is stated statistically more common for unemployed patients (p<0.05). Mild anxiety is stated more common for the people who have graduated from college, compared to non-graduated from collage. This study indicates that the families of children patients who have febrile convulsions shows the anxiety development on the scale of mild to severe, and the level of anxiety is more critical for those who haven't graduated from college, moderate financial situation and unemployed. There should be adequate informing to the families about the disease and the anxiety of the families should be treated. Keywords: Febrile convulsion, parental anxiety, Stax Tx form