The Quality of Life of Siblings of Children With Severe Developmental Disabilities Children

Objectives: Having a disabled child can have profound effects on the living conditions and the mental health of their family. Siblings of the children with disabilities have an important role in supporting them. Their physical, mental and emotional health may be at risk, therefore, their condition and living should be concerned and improved. The current study aimed to investigate the quality of life of these siblings in comparison with the siblings of normal children. Methods: This cross-sectional comparative study was carried out on 33 people who had one sibling with severe developmental disabilities aged 13 to 18 years. The control group consisted of 32 siblings of healthy children who were geographically and economically identical with the test group. The quality of life was measured by the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory Version 4.0 (PedsQL4). The data were analyzed by the Independent t test and Mann-Whitney test.  Results: The Mean±SD age of the siblings with severe developmental disabilities was 15.64±2.06 years and the same score for the normal group was 15.30±2.23 years. The results showed that the siblings of children with developmental disabilities significantly have a poorer quality of life compared to the siblings of the healthy group (P<0.05). This significant difference was also found in the academic, emotional and physical scores of the quality of life scale, but no significant differences were found between the two groups in respect with the social function (P>0.05). Discussion: The current study showed that the quality of life of siblings of children with developmental disabilities is decreased. These results suggest the necessity to provide supportive and therapeutic programs for maintaining and improving the quality of life of these siblings and the whole family.