A predictive model of Health Related Quality of life of parents of chronically ill children: the importance of care-depe
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BioMed Central
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A predictive model of Health Related Quality of life of parents of chronically ill children: the importance of care-dependency of their child and their support system Janneke Hatzmann*1, Heleen Maurice-Stam1, Hugo SA Heymans2 and Martha A Grootenhuis1 Address: 1Psycho Social Department, Emma Children's Hospital, Academic Medical Center (AMC), University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands and 2Department of Pediatrics, Emma Children's Hospital, AMC; University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands Email: Janneke Hatzmann* - [email protected]; Heleen Maurice-Stam - [email protected]; Hugo SA Heymans - [email protected]; Martha A Grootenhuis - [email protected] * Corresponding author
Published: 28 July 2009 Health and Quality of Life Outcomes 2009, 7:72
doi:10.1186/1477-7525-7-72
Received: 2 December 2008 Accepted: 28 July 2009
This article is available from: http://www.hqlo.com/content/7/1/72 © 2009 Hatzmann et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Abstract Background: Parents of chronically ill children are at risk for a lower Health Related Quality of Life (HRQoL). Insight in the dynamics of factors influencing parental HRQoL is necessary for development of interventions. Aim of the present study was to explore the influence of demographic and disease related factors on parental HRQoL, mediated by employment, income, leisure time, holiday and emotional support in a comprehensive model. Methods: In a cross-sectional design, 543 parents of chronically ill children completed questionnaires. A conceptual model of parental HRQoL was developed. Structural equation modeling was performed to explore the relations in the conceptual model, and to test if the model fitted the data. Results: The model fitted the data closely (CHISQ(14) = 11.37, p = 0.66; RMSEA = 0.0, 90%CI [0.00;0.034]. The effect of socio-demographic and medical data on HRQoL was mediated by days on holiday (MCS: β = .21) and emotional support (PCS: β = .14; MCS: β = .28). Also, female gender (β = -.10), age (β = .10), being chronically ill as a parent (β = -.34), and care dependency of the child (β = -.14; β = -.15) were directly related to parental HRQoL. Conclusion: The final model was slightly different from the conceptual model. Main factors explaining parental HRQoL seemed to be emotional support, care dependency, days on holiday and being chronically ill as a parent. Holiday and emotional support mediated the effect of demographic and disease-related factors on HRQoL. Hours of employment, leisure time and household income did not mediate between background characteristics and HRQoL, contrasting the hypotheses.
Background With the increased prevalence and incidence of chronic illness in children [1], the number of families with a
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