Sleep quality and depression-anxiety in mothers of children with two chronic respiratory diseases: asthma and cystic fibrosis.

Background: Sleep quality and psychological well being of parents are expected to be influenced by the child's health and disease status. The aim of this study was to compare sleep quality and depression-anxiety parameters in mothers of children with cystic fibrosis (CF) asthma and healthy controls.
Methods: The study included mothers of 62 children with asthma, 21 children with CF and 35 healthy children. All mothers filled in the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) questionnaire and hospital anxiety depression scale (HADS).
Results: Comparison of the three groups with Kruskall Wallis analysis demonstrated that subjective sleep, sleep efficiency and total PSQI scores were significantly different between the groups (p=0.02, p=0.01 and p=0.04 respectively). Comparisons of the groups in pairs with Mann Whitney U test with Bonferroni correction revealed that subjective sleep quality scores in mothers of children with asthma were significantly higher than the ones in the control group (1.0+/-0.9 vs 0.6+/-0.7, p=0.015). The other PSQI scores as well as the anxiety and depression scores were higher in CF and asthma groups when compared to the control group but did not reach statistical significance. Anxiety and depression scores were significantly correlated with PSQI total score in CF (rho=0.54 and 0.49 respectively) and asthma groups (rho=0.45 and 0.60 respectively) but not in the control group.
Conclusion: In conclusion, presence of a chronic respiratory disease in a child may be associated with disturbed sleep quality and increased depression and anxiety in mothers.