Assessment of Health-Related Quality of Life in Mothers of Children with Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Shiraz, 2008-2009

Introduction: Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a fairly common disorder. Given the high prevalence of this disorder in children worldwide and its adverse effects on the quality of life of themselves and also their parents (especially their mothers we decided to study the quality of life these mothers. Method: 100 cases were selected from the mothers of the children with ADHD referring to Hafez psychiatric clinic in Shiraz. The control group was randomly selected from the mothers of healthy 4th grade primary school students and matched with the case group. Quality of life was evaluated in both groups by use of “the short from health survey” (SF-36). Results: In comparison of health-related quality of life in mothers of children with ADHD and the control group based on the number of children, in the case group the Physical functioning (PF), Role limitation Physical problems (RP), Bodily pain (BP) and General health (GH) dimensions and Physical Component Summary (PCS), had a higher mean score with the higher number of children; but the relationship was significant only in the PF dimension. In the Vitality (VT), Social functioning (SF), Role limitation Emotional problems (RE) and Mental health (MH) dimensions and Mental Component Summary (MCS), the mean score were lower with the higher number of children. The relationship was significant in the VT, SF and RE dimensions and MCS. Conclusion: This study shows that the quality of life in mothers of children with ADHD is significantly lower than the control groups. Also, age of the mother and the number of affected children had a significant effect on further diminishing their quality of life. However, higher education can be considered as a protective factor in these mothers. Employment, although increases the quality of life in some dimensions (e.g. physical functioning), decreases it in some others (e.g. body pain).