Psychosocial difficulties are known to greatly impact the health-related quality of life of a child with epilepsy. Parental coping is a unique aspect of having a child with epilepsy that has not been examined in relation to health-related quality of life in the child with epilepsy until now.
Parental coping with the condition is shown to be significantly related to the child’s health-related quality of life in a youth with epilepsy. Elevated feelings of helplessness, along with epilepsy severity, predict lower health-related quality of life. The study’s findings are the first to demonstrate the unique role of parental coping in on health quality among youth with epilepsy, and, they highlight the importance of providing support to the whole family during pediatric epilepsy treatment.
Highlights From The Study
- Parental coping is associated with Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQOL) in pediatric epilepsy.
- Seizure frequency, gender, and number of Anti-epileptic Drugs (AEDs) also relate to parental coping.
- Higher parental helplessness accounts for the most variance in HRQOL ratings.
- Sociodemographic factors are not significant contributors to parental helplessness.
- Higher parental helplessness was significantly associated with female gender of the child.
- The longer duration of epilepsy was significantly associated with parental acceptance.
We highly recommend that parents of children with epilepsy participate in a support and epilepsy education program. They may also want to seen programs to educate of parenting a child with health concerns.
EpilepsyU.com
Study Source: ScienceDirect.com
