Assessment of the Quality of Life and Relationship of Mental Status Among Parents with Cerebral Palsy Children in a Single Centre Study

Abstract

Introduction: Children with cerebral palsy (CP) in Bangladesh suffer immensely, with no means or hope for a decent life and a public system lacking basic facilities.This study aims to analyze the quality of life (QoL) and depression status of parents among children with CP, as well as the relationship between these factors and their demographic profile. Materials and Methods: This is a descriptive cross-sectional study in which data were collected from the Pediatric Department of Centre for the Rehabilitation of the Paralysed (CRP) in Savar. The participants included 150 children with CP between January 2018 and December 2020. Results: The mean age of the mothers (29.86±6.14) was between 25 and 29 years (32.7%). The most common type of CP was spastic CP among 100 mothers (66.7%). A significant relationship was observed between the mother’s age during marriage and World Health Organization quality of life (WHOQoL-BREF), physical health (P<0.01), psychological health (P<0.01), and the age group of 31-35 years had the lowest scores (Mean±SD 62.00±5.16, 51±0.683) in both domains. A strong correlation (P<0.001) was observed between QoL, physical health (r=0.319), psychological (r=0.365), social (r=0.390) and environmental (r=0.388). From the box plot, QoL showed that spastic CP posed good QoL for mild depression while all other types had neither poor nor good QoL. Conclusion: A hidden issue in every parent is that CP children are the misfortune of their fate that increases their level of depression and consequently decreases their QoL.

Keywords

• Outcome assessment
• Depression
• Quality of life
• Parents
• Cerebral palsy