Rajib Saha - Department of Community Medicine, Bankura Sammilani Medical College, Bankura, West Bengal, India
Raghunath Misra - Department of Community Medicine, Institute of Post-Graduate Medical Education and Research and Seth Sukhlal Karnani Memorial Hospital, Community Medicine, Kolkata, West Bengal, India
Indranil Saha - Department of Community Medicine, IQ City Narayanahrudayala Hospital & Medical College, Durgapur, West Bengal, India

Introduction: The study was conducted to assess the school activity of thalassemic children and to reveal the relationship between school activity with the socio-demographic factors as well as clinico-therapeutic profile. Methods: A total of ۳۶۵ admitted thalassemic patients of Burdwan Medical College (ages ۵ to ۱۲ years) were participated in this cross sectional descriptive study conducted on from July ۲۰۱۱ to June ۲۰۱۲. Their parents were interviewed using school functioning domain of Paediatric Quality of Life Inventory ۴.۰ Generic Core Scale. Independent t test or Mann-Whitney U test, and analysis of variance (ANOVA) or Kruskal-Wallis test were applied to observe the difference between mean values in accordance to their applicability. Statistically significant factors in bivariate analysis were considered for binary logistic regression. Results: Mean score of school activity was ۴۹.۴۲ ± ۱۵.۳۰ out of ۱۰۰. ۴۹.۳% thalassemic children had fair (۵۰-۷۴.۹) school functioning score. Twenty percent of the children were presently not going to school, ۱۱.۸% never went to school and the remaining ۸.۲% were dropped out. Binary logistic regressions revealed that school activity worsened ۴ times with the increase in frequency of blood transfusion single time per year. Patients belonging to joint family and family with no positive history of such disease, had ۳.۴ and ۳.۹ times worse school activity than nuclear family and family with positive child history respectively. Male children had ۲ times more poor school activity than female. Conclusion: School functioning activity of Bengali thalassemic children is generally poor, but counselling of parents and families can improve the situation.

Blood transfusion, Logistic models, Quality of Life, Student dropouts, Tertiary care centers