Psychological Distress among Caregivers of Children Admitted into the Children Emergency Room of a Nigerian Tertiary Hospital.

BACKGROUND

Many caregivers experience significant psychological burden which may impact on the management of a sick child.

OBJECTIVE

To determine the prevalence and associated factors of psychological distress among caregivers of children admitted at the Children Emergency Room.

METHODS

This was a descriptive cross-sectional study among caregivers of children who were hospitalized for at least 24 hours. The 28-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ 28) was used to assess the psychological distress among the caregivers. GHQ scores were stated as means ± standard deviation (SD). Chi-square or Fisher's exact test was used to test for association between sociodemographic variables and psychological distress. Mean GHQ scores in the various domains of psychological dysfunction were compared among groups using the independent sample t-test; at p<0.05.

RESULTS

Of the 97 caregivers who participated in the study, 96 had their data analyzed. The caregivers were aged 19 to 63 (mean 34.25 (8.46)) years; 86 (89.7%) were females and 48 (50%) had tertiary education. The prevalence of psychological distress among the care givers was 69.8%. Caregivers had high levels of anxiety but low levels of depression. Those with lower educational attainment had higher scores on severe depression domain (p = 0.001). Unemployed caregivers had higher mean scores on the anxiety/insomnia (p = 0.039) and social dysfunction domains (p = 0.031). Those with large family sizes scored higher on the anxiety/insomnia domain (p = 0.03).

CONCLUSION

Psychological distress was high among caregivers of children admitted at the children emergency room.