Effect of Maternal Depression on the Participation of Children With Leukemia in Life Activities

 Leukemia is the most common type of cancer among children. Changes in these children’s illnesses and the adverse effects of medications on their physical conditions may cause parental depression. Also, treatment stages, continuous and long-term hospitalizations have negative impacts on the participation of these children in life activities. This study aims to evaluate the effect of maternal depression on the participation of children with leukemia in life activities.

This is a descriptive-analytical study with a cross-sectional design. The study population consists of all children aged 13-15 years with leukemia and their mothers. The children were referred to Seyed Al-Shohada Hospital in Isfahan City, Iran. Using a convenience sampling method, we selected 72 children for this study from January to June 2019. The inclusion criteria were aged 5-13 years, more than 2 months passed from leukemia diagnosis, and access to their mothers. Finally, 62 children and their mothers had the willingness to participate in the study. After explaining the study objectives, a demographic form, the Beck Depression Inventory II (BDI-II), and the short form of assessment of Life Habits (LIFE-H) questionnaire were completed through interviews with children and their mothers. Noreau et al. (2002) designed the LIFE-H questionnaire to assess the participation of people with disabilities. Mortazavi et al. (2013) assessed the validity and reliability of its Persian version. They reported an Intraclass Correlation Coefficient (ICC) >0.60 for all of its subscales and an ICC value of 0.87 for the whole questionnaire, indicating its good validity and reliability. The Beck 2 self-expression questionnaire measures the indicators of depression in individuals. Gasemzadeh et al. (2005) prepared and validated the Persian version of BDI-II. They reported its good validity and reliability to assess depressive symptoms in a normal population (The Cronbach alpha = 0.87). The collected data were analyzed using the Pearson correlation test, the Spearman correlation test, ANOVA, and independent t-test in SPSS v. 20.

 The Mean±SD ages of mothers and their children were 36.98±5.8 and 8.4±2.5 years, respectively. The Mean±SD score of BDI-II in mothers was 21.8±10.9, and more than 85% of them showed some degrees of depression. The Mean±SD score of the LIFE-H questionnaire in children was 67.7±18.8 out of 100. The results showed significant negative relationships between maternal depression and child participation in education (P=0.008) and social life (P=0.05). There were no significant relationships between maternal depression and child participation regarding nutrition (P=0.1), physical fitness (P=0.12), personal care (P=0.24), communication (P=0.4), housing (P=0.17), mobility (P= 0.13), responsibilities (P=0.45), interpersonal relationships (P=0.27), and recreation (P=0.17).

 Depression of mothers of children with leukemia, besides destructive effects on their performance, can limit child participation in education and social life.