Comparison of quality of life of mothers with healthy children and mothers of children with congenital heart disease after open heart surgery

Introduction: Congenital cardiac abnormalities are among the problems that affect the quality of life of children and parents, especially the mothers. Meanwhile, mothers are severely stressed and harmed due to their emotions and feelings, so that the suffering can reduce their quality of life. This study aimed to compare the quality of life of mothers of healthy children and mothers of children with congenital heart disease after cardiac surgery. Methods: This is a cross-sectional descriptive-analytic study where 100 mothers of healthy children and 60 mothers of children with congenital heart disease referring to Vali-e-Asr Hospital in 2016 and 2017 were incorporated. The mothers' quality of life was assessed using the World Health Organization Quality of Life Scale (WHOQOL-BREF). The collected data was analyzed in SPSS software (version 22) using independent t-test, Mann-Whitney, Kruskal-Wallis and Chi-square. The significance level for all tests was considered less than 0.05. Results: According to the findings, the mean age of mothers with healthy children was 31.91 ± 8.57 years and that of mothers of children with congenital heart disease was 32.48 ± 6.46 years. The mean score of the quality of life of mothers with healthy children was 71.25 ± 16.43 and that of the second group was 66.51 ± 15.46. The mean scores of social relationships, mental health, and physical health in mothers with healthy children were significantly higher than those of mothers after their child's surgery. However, there was no significant difference between the two groups as for the mean score of overall quality of life and environmental health. Conclusions: According to the results, it was found that the quality of life of the mothers with unhealthy children is lower than that of mothers with healthy children. Therefore, proper training and timely counseling are recommended as potential measures to somewhat improve their quality of life.