Abstract
Background: Caring for a child with disabilities is a challenging journey, as the parents must meet greater demands when compared with the parents of children without disabilities. Looking after a child with disablities requires additional financial, social, emotional, and physical resources. Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has made this even more challenging and impacted the quality of life of parents of children with disabilities.Methods: The study was an analytical cross-sectional design with two comparison groups: parents of children with developmental disabilities and parents of children without disabilities. The Urdu version of the WHO Quality of Life Measure Abbreviated version (WHOQOL-BREF) was used to measure the quality of life (QoL) among parents. Sociodemographic data were also obtained from the parents.Results: Parents of children with disabilities had lower overall scores when different domains of QoL were considered (physical health, psychological health, social relationships, and environment) using WHOQoL-BREF. Statistically significant differences were observed in the physical and environmental domains of parental QoL.
Highlights
Caring for a child with developmental disabilities is a challenging journey, as the parents must meet greater demands when compared with the parents of children without disabilities
No estimates based on actual measurement of the number of children with disabilities are available; a UK study estimated the national prevalence of childhood disability at 7.3% of the population with the highest prevalence of childhood disability seen in the poorest income quintile [17]
According to UNICEF, in developing countries like Pakistan, children at an early age are exposed to harsh living conditions, such as poor sanitation, malnutrition, communicable diseases, and lack of integrated management of childhood illnesses [19]
Summary
Caring for a child with developmental disabilities is a challenging journey, as the parents must meet greater demands when compared with the parents of children without disabilities. Such parents require additional financial, social, emotional, and physical resources, which may conflict with the competing needs of the other family members. This life-long journey of parents navigating through the medical, developmental, and educational interventions in addition to caregiving responsibilities affects their quality of life (QoL) [1]. Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has made this even more challenging and impacted the quality of life of parents of children with disabilities
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