Psychosocial Burden among Mothers of Cerebral Palsy Children

Abstract

Background: Cerebral palsy is a complicated social problem that affects society in general and families in particular, and no parent wants to infect one of their children with illness or handicap. Caregivers, particularly mothers of children with cerebral palsy, are subjected to a significant psychosocial strain. The researchers wanted to see if there was a link between mothers' psychosocial stress and their children's quality of life. This study aimed to assess psychosocial burden among mothers of cerebral palsy children in Babylon Province/ Iraq. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on a sample of 150 mothers who had child's with cerebral palsy. A non-probability sampling strategy was used to choose a purposive sample of 150 mothers. According to the Babel Health Directorate, this sample was given to two hospitals, including (Imam AL-Sadiq Hospital and Babylon Rehabilitation Centre).  The reliability of the questionnaire was achieved through a pilot study and then presented to experts to prove its validity. The total number of items included in the questionnaire was 20-items. The data was collected by using the semi-structured interview and analyzed by the application of descriptive and inferential statistical data analysis approach. Results: According to the findings, (49.3%) of mothers experienced a high level of psychological burden, (68.7%) experienced a high level of social burden. There are statistically significant differences between psychosocial burden and sociodemographic characteristics of mothers, such as age, education level, occupation, income, housing area, number and type of family (p<0.05). Conclusions: Mothers expressed a high level of psychological burden as being a risk for psychiatric morbidity Because cerebral palsy is considered an additional stress factor for the family, and psychological burden mostly arises during acute events, and the chronicity of the condition predisposes these mothers to psychological depression. One of the key aims for minimizing the stress on mothers of impaired children is to design therapeutic programs to lessen psychological burden in parents of children with cerebral palsy.