The Effects of Physical and Social Health Components on Quality of Life in Turkish Mothers With Disabled Children

Cavlak U., Kavlak E., Gürsoy S., Tarakçı E., Özdinçler A., Uysal H. H.

NEUROLOGIJOS SEMINARAI, cilt.11, sa.1, ss.32, 2007 (Hakemli Dergi)

  • Yayın Türü: Makale / Özet
  • Cilt numarası: 11 Sayı: 1
  • Basım Tarihi: 2007
  • Dergi Adı: NEUROLOGIJOS SEMINARAI
  • Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: EBSCO Education Source
  • Sayfa Sayıları: ss.32
  • Eskişehir Osmangazi Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet

Özet

Background: Parenting chil dren who are physically or intellectually impaired is known to be linked to the im paired wellbe ing of the par ents them selves. Parents face a number of common tasks in man aging their child’s afflicted health. However, there is still little available data on qual ity of life (QOL) in parents of dis abled children in Tur key. This cross-sec tional study was con ducted to de scribe the effects of some variables, which would interfere with the general health, on QOL of mothers with dis abled children (MDC).

Method: Three hundred and seventy two MDC living in the Western of Turkey region with a mean age of 34.73±7.5 years completed The Short Form Health Survey (SF-36). All gave their in formed consent for participating to the study. We also recorded demographics of the MDC. The effects of 10 variables such as; motor developmental level of children, low back pain (LBP), gender of child, clinical type of disability of child, exercise habit of mother, educational level of mother (ELM), occupation of mother, involved extremities of child (IEC), age of mother (AM), and parity on four domains of the SF-36 including, general health (GH), physical functioning (PF), emotional well being (EWB), and social functioning (SF) were analyzed using backward multiple linear regression.

Results: LBP and ELM were found as common significant variables affecting the QOL of MDC regarding the following domains; GH, PF, and EWB. However, LBP and ELM were not found as significant variables for the SF domain. IEC and AM were found as significant variables for the SF domain.

Conclusion: In our context, we found that LBP is the most common significant factor affecting QOL of the MDC in the sample. Since, MDC have to adapt to new roles, reorganize their lives and cope with care, parents with disabled children, especially mothers may benefit from an intensive family competence programme.