Quality of life and the influencing factors of primary caregivers of children with autism / 中华行为医学与脑科学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the quality of life (QOL) of the primary caregivers of children with autism and find the influencing factors.Methods 163 caregivers of children with autism were assessed with short form 36 health survey questionnaire(SF-36) in Chinese,and the data were analyzed by correlation.Results The QOL of the caregivers was injured in many fields.The scores of the eight dimensions of SF-36 were listed respectively as:physical functioning (PF) 84.69 ± 16.39,role limitation due to physical health (RP) 28.87 ± 22.85,bodily pain (BP) 64.72 ± 21.85,general health perception (GH) 50.06 ± 21.80,vitality (VT) 42.79 ± 23.42,social functioning (SF) 52.76 ± 25.46,role limitations due to emotional problems (RE) 32.10 ± 22.27,mental health (MH) 46.17 ± 24.43.The QOL of the primary caregiver was closely related to the caregiver's age,educational level,the family economical situation and time of caring (P ＜ 0.01),and also related to the children's age,autism procedure (P＜0.05).There was no relationship betwecn the QOL and the children's gender,time of participating in rehabilitation training,whether the only child or not,type of medical expense,the caregiver's gender,nationality,marital status,religion,relation with the children,and the family residence.Conclusions The QOL of the primary caregivers of children with autism is affected seriously,and should be intervened accordingly.