Abstract
ObjectivesMothers of school age and older children with developmental disabilities experience poorer health than mothers of typically developing children. This review assesses the evidence for the effect on mothers’ health of caring for young children with developmental disabilities, and the influence of different disability diagnoses and socioeconomic status.MethodsMedline, EMBASE, PsycINFO and CINAHL were searched. Studies measuring at least one symptom, using a quantitative scale, in mothers of preschool children (0–5 years) with and without a diagnosed developmental disability were selected. Random effects meta-analysis was performed, and predictive intervals reported due to high expected heterogeneity.ResultsThe meta-analysis included 23 estimates of association from 14 retrospective studies for the outcomes of stress (n = 11), depressive symptoms (n = 9), general health (n = 2) and fatigue (n = 1). Caring for a child with a developmental disability was associated with greater ill health (standardised mean difference 0.87; 95% predictive interval − 0.47, 2.22). The largest association was for mixed developmental disabilities (1.36; − 0.64, 3.36) and smallest for Down syndrome (0.38; − 2.17, 2.92). There was insufficient socioeconomic information to perform subgroup analysis. The small number of studies and data heterogeneity limited the precision of the estimates of association and generalizability of the findings.Conclusions for PracticeMothers of young children with developmental disabilities may have poorer health than those with typically developing children. Research is needed to identify whether the relationship is causal and, if so, interventions that could reduce the negative effect of caregiving.
Highlights
This paper reports a systematic review with meta-analysis to investigate symptoms of ill health in mothers of preschool children with developmental disabilities compared to mothers of typically developing preschool children, and to identify whether disability diagnosis and socioeconomic status (SES) might explain any differences
Standard deviations were imputed for two outcomes: stress (Roach et al 1999) and depressive symptoms (Scott et al 1997); but could not be imputed for psychological distress (Scott et al 1997), which was only included in the narrative synthesis
The studies with mixed disability groups included children with the named disabling conditions and other disabilities, which were assumed to be Records identified through database searching (CINAHL, PsycINFO, EMBASE & Medline)
Summary
Mothers of school age and older children with developmental disabilities experience poorer health than mothers of typically developing children. This review assesses the evidence for the effect on mothers’ health of caring for young children with developmental disabilities, and the influence of different disability diagnoses and socioeconomic status. Studies measuring at least one symptom, using a quantitative scale, in mothers of preschool children (0–5 years) with and without a diagnosed developmental disability were selected. Results The meta-analysis included 23 estimates of association from 14 retrospective studies for the outcomes of stress (n = 11), depressive symptoms (n = 9), general health (n = 2) and fatigue (n = 1). Caring for a child with a developmental disability was associated with greater ill health (standardised mean difference 0.87; 95% predictive interval − 0.47, 2.22). Estimates may differ depending on the specific disabling conditions included, which are often selected for pragmatic reasons (e.g. multi-country data are available) (Global Research on Developmental Disabilities Collaborators 2018). No studies have estimated prevalence exclusively for the preschool age group
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