6715 Perceived stress and social support as correlates of sickle cell anaemia severity in a low-resource setting

Objectives This study aimed to determine the relationship between psychosocial variables (i.e., perceived social support and perceived stress) and SCA severity in children. Methods This was a hospital-based cross-sectional study involving 60 participants aged 8–17 years selected using simple random sampling technique. Standard rating scales (i.e., SCA scoring system, perceived stress scale, and child and adolescent social support scale) were used to assess the severity of SCA, perceived stress and social support, respectively. Foetal haemoglobin (HbF) was estimated using high performance liquid chromatography. The psychosocial predictors of sickle cell severity were analyzed using multivariate linear regression while controlling for potential confounding variables such as foetal haemoglobin, age, gender and social class. Results There was a negative moderate significant correlation between SCA severity and domains of social support: parents' (rho = -0.30, p = 0.03) and classmates' (rho = -0.50, p < 0.001). Of all the variables studied, only classmates' perceived social support emerged as the significant predictor of SCA severity when other confounders such as HbF were controlled for (β = -0.37, t = 2.41, p = 0.02). Conclusion The findings of this study support the available literature on the beneficial effect of social support in modifying SCA severity. These findings buttress the need for clinicians to consider psychosocial methods (e.g., family and classmates' support) in improving disease outcomes.