Emotional State among Parents of Children with Type 1 Diabetes and its Association with Disease Control

Abstract Background Type 1 diabetes is one of the commonest chronic childhood diseases. It can be diagnosed at any age; peaks in onset occur between 5 and 7 years of age and near puberty. The aim of this work was to assess psychological distress in parents of children with T1DM in comparison to parents of non-diabetic children and to assess the impact of parent's stress on control of diabetes on their children. Methods This comparative cross-sectional study was carried out on 105 parents of children diagnosed with type 1 diabetes recruited from diabetes clinic and 105 parents of non-diabetic children recruited from general paediatric clinic, age of parents was from 25 to 45 years and of child was from 2 to 5 years, both sexes. Participants were divided in to two equal groups: group A: parents of children diagnosed with type 1 diabetes (case group). Group B: parents of non-diabetic children (control group). Results There was statistically significant increase in the percentage of parents with moderate stress in cases group [83 (79%)] than in control group [68 (65.4%)] and also increase in the percentage of severe cases in control group [29 (27.9%)] than cases group [10 (9.5%)] with p-value = 0.002. Also, no statistically significant difference found between both groups regarding assessment of anxiety by Hamilton anxiety rating scale with p-value = 0.420. While there was statistically significant increase in the percentage of parents with severe depression assessed by Beck depression Inventory II among parents of cases group [27 (25.7%)] than parents of control group 1 (1%) with p-value <0.001. While there was statistically significant increase in the percentage of parents with no depression assessed by Beck depression Inventory II among parents of cases group [40 (38.1%)] than parents of control group 0 (0%) with p-value <0.001. There was statistically significant positive correlation between perceived stress scale and Hamilton anxiety rating scale and also Beck depression inventory scale. Also, there was statistically significant positive correlation found between Hamilton anxiety rating scale and beck depression inventory scale. Conclusions Parents of diabetic children are at increased risk for stress, depression and anxiety which in turn negatively affect control of diabetes in children.