Asian Pac. J. Health Sci., 2017; 4(3):166-170 e-ISSN: 2349-0659, p-ISSN: 2350-0964 ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Nakazwe et al ASIAN PACIFIC JOURNAL OF HEALTH SCIENCES, 2017; 4(3):166-170 www.apjhs.com 166 Document heading doi: 10.21276/apjhs.2017.4.3.26 Research Article Knowledge attitude and practices of parents with children suffering from sickle cell disease towards factors that precipitate sickle cell crises,at arthur davidson children’s hospital in Ndola Zambia Elise Nakazwe*, Victor Mwanakasale, Seter Siziya Copperbelt University School of Medicine, Public Health unit, Ndola Zambia Received: 13-07-2017 / Revised: 30-07-2017 / Accepted: 15-08-2017 ABSTRACT Introduction: Sickle cell disease is an autosomal recessive disease that causes considerable morbidity and mortality. The general objective of the study was to define the knowledge attitude and practice of parents with children that have sickle cell disease towards factors that precipitate sickle cell crises ,while the specific objectives were to determine the knowledge of factors that precipitate sickle cell crises among parents with children suffering from sickle cell disease, to assess the attitude of parents towards reducing the sickle cell crises, to describe the practices that parents do in order to reduce the frequency of hospitalization. Methodology: A cross-sectional quantitative study was conducted on parents with children that had sickle cell disease who went for monthly review at Arthur Davidson Children’s hospital in Ndola Zambia. The self -administered structured questionnaire was used for data collection .Data was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics on SPSS version 20 Results:A total of 216(100%) parents were enrolled into the studyof which 173(80.1%) were female and 43(19.9%)male. Most respondents were aged between 27- 37 and were all from Ndola. About half of the respondents had average knowledge 53.9 %.Conclusion:The study reviewed that respondents had average knowledge about sickle cell and factors that precipitate crises, 91. 2% of the respondents had a positive attitude towards the disease and they practiced good methods that have the potential of reducing the crises. Key words: Attitude, Sickle cell Crises, Knowledge, Practice, Sickle cell disease. Introduction Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) afflicts millions of people throughout the World and is one of the most prevalent and costly genetic disorder[1].It is an autosomal recessive genetically transmitted hemoglobinopathy that causes considerable morbidity and mortality[2].The disease is widely distributed in African and American negroes but it is also seen in Arabian peninsula, Indian subcontinent and parts of Europe[3]. _______________________________ *Correspondence Elise Nakazwe Copperbelt University School of Medicine, Public Health unit, Ndola Zambia E Mail: elisenakazwe23@gmail.com Historically the disease dates as far as 1910 when James B.Herick noticed peculiar elongated and sickle- shaped red blood cells in a case of severe anemia[4], Linus Pauling on the other hand demonstrated electrophorecally an abnormal hemoglobin S(HBS) which is an abnormal variant of hemoglobin A(HbA) in 1949.[5]So a sickle cell patient is one who inherited two abnormal genes that code for hemoglobin S instead of hemoglobin A and this possess serious health problems on the patient as they tend to have frequent attacks called crises as the red blood cells sickle when the body is subjected to conditions like infections, dehydration, physical exercise, extreme temperatures and other forms of stress. Clinically there are four crises that are known, Aplastic, Hemolytic, Sequestration and Vaso-occlusive that make the presentation of sickle cell very complex, very common to sickle cell is a type of anemia called hemolytic anemia which is usually chronic and also comes with a