Comparison of life quality in mothers of children with cerebral palsy and normal children

Parenting a child with cerebral palsy is associated with a number of challenges. The purpose of the present research was to compare the life quality in mothers of children with cerebral palsy and normal children. In this case-control study, 105 mothers of children with cerebral palsy were randomly selected as the experimental group and 105 mothers of normal children that were matched with the first group in terms of demographic variables were selected as control group. The participants answered the quality of life questionnaire)SF-36). The collected data were analyzed by SPSS-18 statistical software and independent t-test. Analysis of findings showed that there was a significant difference between whole life quality of mothers of normal children and mothers of children with cerebral palsy (t=6.324, p=0.001). Also, there was a significant difference between groups in other domains of quality of life except physical health domain (p=0.001). The research findings showed that whole life quality level of mothers of children with cerebral palsy was lower than that of mothers of normal children. Thus, clinical professionals should be concerned about poor quality of life in parents of children with cerebral palsy and provide the required resources to support these children.