Evaluation of sleep quality, anxiety and depression levels in mothers of children with cancer

Abstract

Introduction: Malignant and chronic diseases in children affect all family members economically and psychologically and can cause serious adjustment problems and psychological disorders. This study is aimed to compare the depression/anxiety levels and sleep quality of mothers who had children with and without cancer diagnosis. Methods: Case group consisted of mothers of the children who applied to the Pediatric Hematology-Oncology Service and Polyclinic and diagnosed with cancer. Control group consisted of mothers of healthy children. The Pittsburg Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) were used to the mothers.Results: In the mothers of children with cancer; anxiety was found as 47.1% and depression was detected as 84.1% (p lt;0.001). There was a sleep disorder in 32.9 % (n=56) of the mothers of children with cancer (p=0.007). It was observed that 58.9% (n=53) of the mothers with sleep disorder had anxiety and 74.4% (n=67) of them had depression. There was a statistically significant relationship between sleep quality and anxiety and depression (p lt;0.001). Compared to the control group, the anxiety frequency of mothers of children with cancer increased 9.185 times [OR=9.185, 95% Cl (4.993-16.898); and depression frequency increased 23.748 times [OR=23.748, 95% CI (13.480-41.837)].Conclusions: In this study, it was determined that the anxiety and depression levels of mothers of cancer children were higher than those of mothers without cancer and the sleep quality was worse. Education and counseling services to be given to the mothers will be effective in decreasing anxiety and depression levels and increasing sleep qualities and reducing fatigue.

Keywords

• child
• neoplasms
• mother
• anxiety
• depression
• sleep wake disorders
• çocuk
• kanser
• anne
• kaygı
• depresyon
• uyku bozuklukları