Journal of Blood Disorders & Transfusion

Abstract

Help-seeking Behaviours among Haemophilia Community in Central Iran: A Qualitative Study

Mehrdad Zeinalian, Effat Merghati-Khoei, Sayyed Ali Azin, Ashraf Samavat and Morteza Hashemzadeh-Chaleshtori

Objectives: Impressive factors affecting help-seeking behaviours and its construction have a determinant role to design health interventions; therefore we run a qualitative study to explore them for the first time before implementing Iranian Program for Control and Prevention of Haemophilia (IPCPH) in Iran.

Methods: We applied an ethnographic approach in this study. Participants were 61 haemophilia patients and their first degree relatives in Isfahan Province (center of Iran). We organized them in 7 Focus Groups Discussions (FGD). Data analysis was performed using thematic and discourse analysis.

Results: We explored some impressive factors affecting help-seeking behaviours of the participants including: self-efficacy, isolation and privacy concluded from stigmatization, religious beliefs, gender-based discrimination, and familial contexts such as family advocacy, poverty, cultural characteristics, and previous experiences on haemophilia disease.

Conclusion: We should develop IPCPH by promoting help-seeking behaviours of haemophilia community through some interventions such as: comprehensive counselling, economic advocacy, and promoting healthrelated attitudes. Meanwhile, we can help the haemophilia community to get rid of social restrictions through public education toward haemophilia and its preventive methods