Losing a child due to a life-limiting diagnosis - Parental well-being and quality of life: Nationwide survey

Publikation: Bidrag til tidsskriftTidsskriftartikelForskningfagfællebedømt

  • Camilla Lykke
  • Per Sjøgren
  • Ola Ekholm

Objective: Losing a child is burdensome with potential long-term impact on the parents' well-being and quality of life. The aim was to investigate parental well-being and quality of life 3-5 years after losing a child due to life-limiting diagnoses and to identify associated factors in order to target future interventions. Methods: All parents, who lost a child (<18 years) due to life-limiting diagnoses in the period 2012-2014 in Denmark, were invited to complete a self-administered questionnaire. A seven-point Visual Digital Scale (VDS) was used to assess issues of well-being and quality of life including physical health, anxiety, depression and sleep quality which were combined into a cumulative symptom index. Associations were assessed by means of ordinal logistic regression models. Results: In all, 152 (38%) children were represented by 136 mothers and 57 fathers. Totally, 17.6% of the mothers and 14.0% of the fathers had ≥2 symptoms (assessed by the symptom index). Parents with lower education had 2.11 (95% CI: 1.01 to 4.40) times higher odds of having more symptoms than parents with higher education. Unmarried parents had 2.14 (95% CI: 1.03 to 4.42) times higher odds of having more symptoms than married parents. Ten per cent of the parents reported poor overall quality of life. Conclusion: According to the VDS, 1 out of 10 parents experienced poor overall quality of life 3-5 years after the loss. Every sixth had two or more symptoms assessed by the symptom index. Associated factors for poor quality of life suggest attention to particularly unmarried parents and parents with lower education.

OriginalsprogEngelsk
Artikelnummer003251
TidsskriftBMJ Supportive and Palliative Care
ISSN2045-435X
DOI
StatusE-pub ahead of print - 2024

Bibliografisk note

Funding Information:
This study was funded by Helsefonden (Grant number 2016-6).

Publisher Copyright:
© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2021. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.

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