Psychological health of mothers caring for mentally disabled children in Qatar

OBJECTIVE: To compare the prevalence of psychiatric morbidity among mothers of mentally disabled children and mothers of non-disabled children, and to identify the determinants associated with psychiatric morbidity.

METHODS: A comparative cross-sectional study was conducted in Qatar from January to June 2005 to compare the prevalence psychiatric morbidity by using the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) among 195 mothers of mentally disabled children selected as a study group, and 139 mothers with non-disabled children as a comparison group.

RESULTS: The prevalence of psychiatric morbidity was higher among mothers caring for mentally disabled children than mothers of non-disabled children in the comparison group. The study found the following predictors for developing psychiatric morbidity: having more than one disabled child, mentally disabled child less than 5 years of age, disabled child is first in order of birth, presence of chronic illness in addition to the mental disability, and presence of other type of disability besides the mental one. We also found that educating mothers in caring for a disabled child has a protective effect on developing psychiatric morbidity.

CONCLUSION: Mothers of mentally disabled children have poorer psychological health than mothers of non-disabled children. Shifting the rehabilitation services from child-centered to family-centered services through providing supportive services is recommended.