The Caregiver Health Effects of Caring for Young Children with Developmental Disabilities: A Meta-analysis

Objectives Mothers of school age and older children with developmental disabilities experience poorer health than mothers of typically developing children. This review assesses the evidence for the effect on mothers’ health of caring for young children with developmental disabilities, and the influe...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Maternal and child health journal Vol. 24; no. 5; pp. 561 - 574
Main Authors: Masefield, Sarah C., Prady, Stephanie L., Sheldon, Trevor A., Small, Neil, Jarvis, Stuart, Pickett, Kate E.
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: New York Springer US 01.05.2020
Springer
Springer Nature B.V
Subjects:
Age
Autism
Care and treatment
Caregivers
Caregivers - psychology
Caregivers - statistics & numerical data
Child care
Child development deviations
Children & youth
Childrens health
Depression - epidemiology
Depression - psychology
Developmental disabilities
Developmental Disabilities - psychology
Disabilities
Disability
Down syndrome
Fatigue - epidemiology
Fatigue - psychology
Gynecology
Health aspects
Health Status
Heterogeneity
Humans
Maternal & child health
Maternal and Child Health
Medicine
Medicine & Public Health
Meta-analysis
Mothers
Mothers - psychology
Mothers - statistics & numerical data
Parents & parenting
Pediatrics
Population Economics
Preschool children
Psychological aspects
Public Health
Socioeconomic Factors
Socioeconomics
Sociology
Systematic review
United Kingdom
Systematic review
Health
Developmental disabilities
Caregiver
Meta-analysis
ISSN:1092-7875, 1573-6628, 1573-6628
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Objectives Mothers of school age and older children with developmental disabilities experience poorer health than mothers of typically developing children. This review assesses the evidence for the effect on mothers’ health of caring for young children with developmental disabilities, and the influence of different disability diagnoses and socioeconomic status. Methods Medline, EMBASE, PsycINFO and CINAHL were searched. Studies measuring at least one symptom, using a quantitative scale, in mothers of preschool children (0–5 years) with and without a diagnosed developmental disability were selected. Random effects meta-analysis was performed, and predictive intervals reported due to high expected heterogeneity. Results The meta-analysis included 23 estimates of association from 14 retrospective studies for the outcomes of stress (n = 11), depressive symptoms (n = 9), general health (n = 2) and fatigue (n = 1). Caring for a child with a developmental disability was associated with greater ill health (standardised mean difference 0.87; 95% predictive interval − 0.47, 2.22). The largest association was for mixed developmental disabilities (1.36; − 0.64, 3.36) and smallest for Down syndrome (0.38; − 2.17, 2.92). There was insufficient socioeconomic information to perform subgroup analysis. The small number of studies and data heterogeneity limited the precision of the estimates of association and generalizability of the findings. Conclusions for Practice Mothers of young children with developmental disabilities may have poorer health than those with typically developing children. Research is needed to identify whether the relationship is causal and, if so, interventions that could reduce the negative effect of caregiving.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-2
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
content type line 14
ObjectType-Feature-3
ObjectType-Evidence Based Healthcare-1
ObjectType-Article-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
ObjectType-Review-3
content type line 23
ISSN:1092-7875
1573-6628
1573-6628
DOI:10.1007/s10995-020-02896-5