Parental Quality of Life in the Framework of Paediatric Chronic Gastrointestinal Disease

Chronic gastrointestinal diseases, such as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and celiac disease (CD), might have impact not only on the affected child but also on their parents since inside the family framework, a change in each member may have influence on the whole system. The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that parents whose children have IBD or CD will have a lower quality of life (QoL) compared to parents of healthy children, as well as that lower QoL will be found among parents who perceive lower health related quality of life (HRQOL) of their child. 55 parents of children with IBD, 49 of CD and 53 parents of healthy children were included in the study. Children were aged 7-18 years. In order to measure parental QoL, a Croatian version of the WHOQOL-BREF questionnaire was administered, with four domains: physical health, psychological health, social relationship and environment. The Total QoL was calculated as a sum of all domain items. The parent–proxy report of children’s HRQOL, PedsQLTM 4.0 Generic Core Scales was used. Main result shows that parents of children with IBD report a significantly lower psychological health, compared to parents of other children, and significantly lower physical health compared to parents of healthy children. Among parents of children with CD and parents of healthy children, better parental Total QoL was significantly correlated with better parental report of children’s HRQOL, while for parents of children with IBD those associations were not found. Results of study show association between presence of the disease in offspring with poorer parental QoL, thus highlight the importance of supporting not only children with chronic disease but also involving their parents in psychosocial interventions, as well as supporting the patient’s association groups which gather both children with chronic disease and their parents.