Psychological Distress among Caregivers of Children with Disability : A Cross-sectional Study

Abstract

Background: Approximately 140 million children globally and 1.7 % of children in Bangladesh live with disabilities. The caregiver of the children with disability (CWD) faces many emotional challenges to lead their live such as emotional suffering, stress, anxiety & depression which is an indicator of psychological distress. Aim: The study’s aimed was to estimate the level of psychological distress among caregiver of children with disability. Methods: Caregivers of CWD participated in this quantitative cross- sectional study. The number of participants were 257. Participants were selected through purposive sampling. Participants within 18-60 age who were the primary caregiver and continuing therapy for their CWD were included in this study. The study conducted in different special schools and organizations. Psychological distress (PD) was measured by Kessler psychological distress scale. This study also captured sociodemographic variables that are related to caregiver psychological distress. Descriptive statistics and fisher exact’s test, chi- square test and independent t test were used to analyze the data. Results: A total of 257 participants had in this study, where the response rate was 98.2%. Researcher used SPSS version 26 to analyses the information. Prevalence of psychological distress was 77% (198) among caregivers of children with disability & 23% (59) are psychologically well according to this study. Among the caregivers with psychological distress, 30% (77) has mild, 27.6% (71) has moderate and 19.5% (50) has severe level of psychological distress. In this study the researcher found only 3.9% (10) male and 96.1% (247) female caregivers of CWD. The researcher found association xiii between gender, occupation, relationship with the child, suffering from chronic illness, educational level, sleeping hours and monthly income. Conclusion: Psychological distress of a caregiver had significant impact on children with disabilities such as it can affect the quality of life a CWD and also it has effect on the development of the child. This study found that 77% of caregiver had psychological distress. Establishing support and raising awareness among health professional can address these effects. Key word: Children with Disability, psychological distress.