The Impact of Education via Short Message Service (SMS) versus that of by e-mail: A Quasi-Experimental Study Among Parents of Children with Leukemia in Shiraz, Iran

Abstract

Educating parents of children with leukemia increases the quality of provided care to pediatric patients. This study has been designed to determine the impact of education via email and Short Message Service (SMS) on caring knowledge of chemotherapy complications in parents of children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). The valid and reliable questionnaire consisted of personal information and knowledge of the effects of chemotherapy in children with leukemia. Seventy four SMS were sent to the parents in form of 5 categories of education about how to care complications of chemotherapy during 10 weeks of the study. The findings of this study indicated that, the awareness of parents increased significantly within a week and a month after the education (p<0.001). Training with SMS or email promoted the knowledge of parents about the side effects of chemotherapy in children with ALL.