Parental Stress and Quality of Life in Mothers of Children with Inherited Metabolic Diseases
Date Issued
2007
Date
2007
Author(s)
Lo, Feng-Chu
DOI
zh-TW
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate the parental stress and quality of life of mothers of children with inherited metabolic diseases and to explore the related factors. Subjects of the study consisted of 35 children with inherited metabolic diseases, requiring low protein diet control, and their mothers. For comparison, the control group consisted of 35 normal children and their mothers. The children’s age, sex and the mothers’ age and education matched those of the study group. They were all enrolled by purposive sampling. The data were collected in the form of questionnaires, including: （1）the basic information of the children and mother, （2）characteristics of disease and dietary situation,（3）the frequency of mothers asking for genetic counseling and social resources,（4）parental stress scale (PSI/SF), and（5）quality of life scale (WHOQOL-BREF). The data were analyzed with the software SPSS 10.0 for windows.
The major findings of the study are as follows：
1. 35 children with inherited metabolic diseases were recruited in this study. Their mean age was 4.40±2.15 years. Most of them were involved with amino acid metabolic defects； 35% of them had phenylketonuria and complete (71%) or almost complete (26%) diet control, and 60% of them enjoyed normal development. The mean age of their mothers was 32.51±4.81 years. The majority of them had junior college degree without professional occupation, and most of them were in the low socioeconomic status. The family income was NT$ 40,000-50,000 per month in most families. 91% of the mothers had other family members’ assistance to care for her child.
2. Significantly higher parental stress was revealed in the mothers having children with inherited metabolic disease compared with those with healthy children. However, in those who revealed high parental distress, the parent-child dysfunctional interaction stress was the least. mostly mothers with children at the age of 4-6,Children with maple syrup urine disease and poor development who had undergone rehabilitation frequently generated the highest parental stress. Mother’s education level, monthly family income and self-perception about health condition had negative correlation with mother’s parental stress.
3.The mothers of children with inherited metabolic disease revealed lower quality of life scale. These mother’s quality of life was high in the social domain, and low in the psychological domain; it was worse if the children were with poor development and required more rehabilitation and if the children started diet control at an older age. Family income and self-perception about health condition had positive correlation with the mothers’ quality of life. They would have comparatively better quality of life if there were other family members to take care of the children.
4. Overall, the mothers’ parental stress had significant negative correlation with their quality of life, especially in physical health and in psychological and environmental domains
We conclude that in mothers having children with inherited metabolic disease, the basic social-economic factors of the mother, children’s disease characteristics, diet control status, availability of other family members’ assistances, etc., have significant correlation with the mothers’ parental stress and their life quality. Further efforts to decrease the mother’s parental stress and improve their quality of life are warranted.
Subjects
先天代謝異常疾病
親職壓力
生活品質
inherited metabolic disease
parental stress
quality of life
Type
other