Effects of Stress on Mothers of Hospitalized Children in a Hospital in Iran

OBJECTIVE Hospitalization of a child can cause severe anxiety and stress in the parents, especially for the mother. This stress consequently affects the treatment course of the child. Hereby, we investigate the impact of different stressors in mothers of hospitalized children. MATERIALS & METHODS In this cross-sectional study, 225 mothers of hospitalized children in the pediatric ward of Besat hospital were randomly selected and studied. Data collection tool was a two-part questionnaire gathered by interviewing the mother. The first part included demographic information of the patients. The second part included questions regarding stressors in four different categories; child-related factors, environmental factors, socioeconomic factors and health professional factors. SPSS 16.5 was used for statistical analysis and data were analyzed by one way ANOVA and T test. RESULTS In the child-related factor category, fear of child death (84%); in the socioeconomic factor category, fear of disease in the other siblings (84%); in the environmental factor category, unpleasant odors in the ward (56%); and in the health professional category, not enough explanation about inserting IV lines, (54.2%) constituted the most important factors. There was a meaningful correlation between the stressors and the mothers' age and occupation, child age, days of hospitalization, types of admission and health insurance coverage, but there was no meaningful correlation between stressors and other factors. CONCLUSION Professional and in depth training programs should be provided for health care providers and nursing staff regarding dealing with mothers of hospitalized children.