Psychosocial Burden and Its Relationship to the Quality of Life (QoL) of Children With Cerebral Palsy: A Mothers’ Feedback

To investigate the psychosocial burden on mothers and its relationship to the Quality of Life (QoL) of children with cerebral palsy living in Babylon Province, Iraq.

This research is a descriptive correlational study. A non-probability sampling method was used to choose a sample of 150 mothers who had children with cerebral palsy. According to the Babel Health Directorate, this sample was recruited from two hospitals: Imam AL-Sadiq Hospital and Babylon Rehabilitation Centre. The reliability of the study questionnaire was achieved through a pilot study and then presented to experts to prove its validity. The total number of items included in the study questionnaire was 20 items. The data were collected by using semi-structured interviews and analyzed by the application of descriptive and inferential statistics.

According to the findings, 49.3% of mothers experienced a high level of psychological burden, 68.7% a high level of social burden, and 92% experienced a low QoL for their cerebral palsy children. The QoL for cerebral palsy children was significantly correlated with mothers’ psychosocial burden (r=-0.142; P=0.012).

Mothers expressed a high level of psychological burden as a risk for psychiatric morbidity because of the burden of care, which leads to a relative reduction or stimulation of parents’ demands. Mothers’ psychosocial burdens are highly associated with their children’s QoL. More research is needed to assess the requirements and concerns of families with CP children.