The determination of factors that affect anxiety level and life quality of parents having children with hydrocephalus

Hydrocephalus, a serious disease, is in the literature that parents may have adverse effects on the increase in anxiety and quality of life. However, there have been limited edition studies of the families concerned with the level of anxiety and quality of life. This study was conducted to determine the factors affecting the anxiety level and quality of life of families with hydrocephalic children. Data were collected from the literature using 27 questionnaire demographic data form, "State Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI)" and "Short Form 36 (SF-36)" to determine the anxiety levels of the families and quality of life. The study is realized on the families of children with hydrocephaly between the ages of 0 and 18 years staying at Erciyes University Gevher Nesibe Hospital Brain Neurosurgery Department between February and September 2017. Most of the children of the participating parents are girls (54.3%) and 31.4% are under one year old. In 82.8% of the children, hydrocephalus occurred at birth. Half of the children were diagnosed within the last 1 year. 77.1% of the children underwent surgery between 1 and 4, and the mean number of operations was 3.72 ± 4.18. The average hospitalization period for children is 17.02 ± 26.18 days. 85,7% of the family members interviewed mothers formed. In the study, 66.7% of the parents stated that they had psychological problems in themselves and only one in four accepted the illness. Because of the study, the children's gender, age, type of delivery, birth order, number of operations done to the child, the child's transactions, the average sleep time in the hospital, the shape of the acquired disease not to be affect the state and trait anxiety levels (p>0.05), the number of siblings of the child and the duration of the diagnosis were determined to be effective on the anxiety level (p<0.01). The quality of life of the parent affects the number of siblings, birth order, time of diagnosis, number of operations, hospital stay, father's age, mother and father education level, maternity status, family type, family income, place of living and health insurance factors. According to the results, parents with single children and children who have diagnosed in the last year have a high status anxiety score, provide emotional support to the family as parents may be the result of fear of losing children, in the last year, considering the fear of unknown awareness based on the new diagnosis of diagnostic areas, nurses ' education and counseling to families in the management of the disease, it may be advisable to direct non-health-related families to social service units, to make use of home care services, and to try to raise the quality of life of parents with social responsibility projects. Keywords: Hydrocephalic Child, Parents, Life Quality, Anxiety Level, Nurse