Effects of Coaching Caregivers Program on Ability to Care for Young Children with Febrile Seizures in Tertiary Care Hospital Suphanburi Province

Abstract

This quasi-experimental research with a two-group pretest–posttest design aimed to examine the effects of a caregiver coaching program on the ability to care for children with febrile seizures in a tertiary hospital in Suphanburi Province. The sample consisted of 52 caregivers of children aged 6 months to 5 years with febrile seizures who were admitted to the pediatric ward of the tertiary hospital between March and August 2025. Participants were divided into an experimental group and a control group, 26 participants in each group. The control group received routine care, while the experimental group received the caregiver coaching program. Research instruments included the caregiver coaching program, a general information questionnaire, and the caregiver ability questionnaire for children with febrile seizures, which demonstrated a content validity index of 0.990 and a Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of 0.903. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, paired t-test, and independent t-test.
The results showed that the general characteristics of caregivers in the control and experimental groups were similar. Most were female, with a mean age of approximately 28–29 years, parents of the sick children, and had secondary education. No significant differences were found between the two groups. After the intervention, caregivers in the experimental group had significantly higher mean scores for the ability to care for children with febrile seizures compared to before the intervention (t(25) = 4.27, p < .001, d= 0.84) and significantly higher scores than the control group (t(50) = 5.68, p < .001, d= 1.77). These findings indicate that the caregiver coaching program can effectively enhance the ability of caregivers to care for children with febrile seizures at a high level.