Health-related quality of life in parents of children with intellectual disability

OBJECTIVE Special clinical characteristics and socio-psychological difficulties are observed in individuals with intellectual disability (ID) which may have a negative impact on the psychological and physical health of their parents. This study aimed to evaluate various aspects of health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in parents of children suffering from ID. METHOD The sample consisted of 354 parents, aged 48.15+/-14.2 years, who had a child attending a special education school or institution. The instrument Health Survey SF-36 (scoring 0-100) was used to evaluate the physical and socio-psychological health of the parents. RESULTS The SF-36 scoring revealed the following results: Physical functioning (PF): 74.35+/-23.77, role physical (RP): 75.81+/-37.04, physical pain (BP): 67.23+/-29.55, general health (GH): 62.47+/-22.13, vitality (VT): 57.66+/-20.75, social functioning (SF): 71.97+/-27.69, role emotional (RE): 68.27+/-39.77, and mental health (MH): 58.32+/-22.43. The internal consistency reliability measured by Cronbach's alpha was 0.903. The Kruskal-Wallis non-parametric analysis of variance and the Mann-Whitney U-test revealed no significant gender (father -mother) differences in health-related quality of life, but a significant negative impact of parental age on specific items, namely PF: U=11,088, RP: U=11,898, BP: U=11,070, GH: U=10,422, VT: U=12,042, and SF: U=12,078 (p <= 0.007). The marital status of the parents was negatively associated with RP: U=11,898 (p=0.02) and RE: U=11,376 (p=0.004), and when an increase in the number of children was taken into consideration, analysis of variance also revealed a negative influence on PF: x(2)=51.665, BP: x(2)=16.485, SF: x(2)=19.301, RE: x(2)=30.670 (p=0.000), and MH: x2=6.840 (p=0.033). Parents with chronic illness recorded lower HRQoL, specifically RP: U=10,566, BP: U=5,652, VT: U=8,334, SF: U=9,414, PF: U=3,618 and GH: U=3,114 (p<0.001). The parental educational status positively affected PF: x(2)=21.446, BP: x(2)=6.201, GH: x(2)=13.827, VT: x(2)=10.292, SF: x(2)=17.114 and MH: x(2)=27.250 (p<0.05). In addition, a negative rela-