• Factors related to the social health information needs of the families of students with cancer
  • Iman Mosallanejad,1,* Zeinab Sadat Moosavifard,2
    1. Master of education and training
    2. Department of Nursing, faculty of nursing, Bandar Abbas Branch, Islamic Azad University, Bandar Abbas, Iran.


  • Introduction: Continuous evaluation of parents' informational needs and related factors can increase the quality of child care. The purpose of this research was to determine the factors related to the information needs of families of children with cancer.
  • Methods: The current study was a descriptive-analytical cross-sectional study that was conducted on 300 families with children with cancer who referred to Peymaniye Hospital in Jahrom, who were included in the study as a purposeful and voluntary non-probability sampling. The information was collected by a researcher-made questionnaire with 48 items in 4 dimensions (access, presentation and exchange of relevant health information; provision of information about cancer by the treatment staff; health facilities and services and counseling; and social, economic and spiritual support) and collected and analyzed using SPSS software. The entry criteria included having at least one child with cancer in the family and the desire to participate in the research and the exit criteria, refusing to continue cooperation at any stage of the study.
  • Results: Parents' gender and child's age were related to the total score of the health information needs of the family of children with cancer and the second dimension of the four dimensions of these needs (P<0.05). Parents' gender, their level of education, the duration of the child's diagnosis, the type of cancer and the presence of a cancer patient in the second-degree family with the first dimension; Gender of parents and their level of education, place of residence, amount of income and age of the sick child are among the factors related to the third dimension; And the gender of the parents and their education, the amount of income and the age of the sick child had a significant relationship with the fourth dimension of the health information needs of the children's family (P<0.05).
  • Conclusion: Considering the relationship of some individual, background and socio-economic factors on the informational needs of the families of children with cancer, it is necessary for the health authorities to pay attention to these factors in order to provide and solve the aforementioned informational needs. Identifying the factors related to the health information needs of these families can help the guardians of the health field to take measures to meet the health information needs of these patients and their families through face-to-face or non-face-to-face training, preparing pamphlets, brochures, Guide to do. Certainly, the optimal solution of such information needs will have a positive effect on the health of the sick child and the costs imposed on the family and the health system.
  • Keywords: social health, cancer