Responses of mothers of children with CHD: quality of life, anxiety and depression, parental attitudes, family functionality.

Introduction The aim of this study was to evaluate the anxiety and depression status, family functions, parenting attitudes, and quality of life in the mothers of children with CHD.

METHOD: The study enrolled 120 mothers: 40 of children with cyanotic CHD, 40 of children with non-cyanotic CHD, and 40 of healthy controls. Short Form-36 for quality of life, Hospital Anxiety-Depression Scale for anxiety and depression, Family Assessment Device for the detection of problems affecting family functions, and Parental Attitude Research Instrument for measuring child-rearing attitudes were used in the study.

RESULTS: Statistically significant decreases were found in the general health standards of mothers of non-cyanotic children (p=0.035) and in the emotional and physical role difficulty of mothers of cyanotic children (p=0.006, p=0.010). When anxiety and depression levels of the parents were examined, the anxiety level of the cyanotic group was found to be significantly higher than that of the other groups (p=0.031). When family behaviours were assessed, there was a statistically significant decrease in role status in the families having a child with cyanotic CHD (p=0.035). In the Parental Attitude Research Instrument test, the husband and wife incompatibility sub-scale was found to be statistically significantly lower in the cyanotic CHD group (p=0.030).

CONCLUSION: When there is a diseased person in the family, the focus should not be solely on the problems of the patient but also on preventive methods to be implemented in order to protect the mental health of all family members.