Development of Screening System for Thalassemia: A Model of Community Involvement in Lao People Democratic Republic

Abstract

Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) is one of South-East Asian countries
where prevalence of thalassemia is relatively high. At present, there is no thalassemia
preventive and control program in Lao PDR. To implement preventive and control program
for thalassemia, resources are essential. One of the resources that is needed to develop at
the early stage is human resources in health aspect.
The objective of this study was to assess the feasibility to implement thalassemia
screening program at community level in Lao PDR. This pilot study was conducted in 6 villages,
Keo-udom district, Vientiane province with community involvement by announcement
through representatives of Lao Women Association, training health personnel of health
center and village health volunteers. Later, health personnel and village health volunteers
conducted health education session to reproductive-age women in each village. Achievement of
the program was assessed on proportion of attending blood testing of 152 women who
voluntarily participated the program. Descriptive statistics were performed and data were
presented as frequency, percent, mean and standard deviation. Wilcoxon sign-ranked test
was performed to compare knowledge before and after training. Statistical significant was set
at 0.05.
The results revealed that of the total scores 8, before training, health personnel
and village health volunteers had knowledge mean scores of 5.0 (S.D.=0.9) and 4.2 (S.D.=0.4),
respectively. After training, the mean scores increased to 7.0 (S.D.=0.5) and 6.7 (S.D.=0.5),
respectively. Of 152 reproductive women participating the program, 114 (75%) attended
blood testing for screening thalassemia. The results indicate that there is a high possibility to
develop thalassemia screening program at community level in Lao PDR.