Abstract:
Abstract
Background: Quality of life is an important aspect of well-being for the caregivers of children
with neurodevelopmental disorders, making it a noteworthy outcome. Caring for children and
adolescent with neurodevelopmental disorders is a challenging experience for parents and it affects overall quality of life and its domains.
Objectives: To assess quality of life and associated factors among caregiver of children and adolescents with neurodevelopmental disorders in, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 2022.
Method: Institutional based cross-sectional study design was conducted with 348 caregivers of
children and adolescents with neurodevelopmental disorders in Addis Ababa from April 2022 to
July 2022. The study subjects were selected using consecutive sampling technique. WHOQOLBREF:-was used to assess the health related quality of life. Data was entered by EpiData 4.6.0.2
and analyzed using SPSS V.26. Multiple linear regression analysis was done to identify associated factors with quality of life. Un-standardized Beta (?) coefficient with 95% confidence interval
(CI) was computed to assess the level of association and a p-value <0.05 was declared statistical
significance.
Results: The mean score of the overall quality of life was 62.61 with the standard deviation of
5.17. The mean scores for physical health, psychological, environmental and social relationship
domains were 57.36 ± 9.98, 66.98 ± 9.39, 60.02 ± 9.14and 66.06 ± 12.91, respectively. Age was
significantly associated with physical domain (?=-0.25, 95%CI: ?0.43, ?0.07), with environmental domain (? =-4.57, 95%CI: -9.06,-0.09,).Being divorced/widowed was negatively associated
with psychological health (?=-2.99, 95%CI:-5.82,-0.17), with social health (?=-0.62, 95%CI:-
1.33,-0.10). Presence medical illness was negatively associated with physical health domain
(?=-4.32, 95%CI:-7.64, -2.91) and with environmental domain (? =-3.11, 95%CI:-5.71,-
0.51).Poor social support was negatively associated with psychological health (? =-3.25,
95%CI:-5.89, -0.61), with social health domain (? =?3.39, 95%CI: ?11.30) and moderate social
support(?=8.62, 95%CI: 3.15, 14.09) was found positively associated with physical health
.Depression (?=-6.32, 95%CI:-11.96,-0.67), and anxiety (? =-3.07, 95%CI:-5.80,-0.34) were factors negatively associated with physical health and with psychological health domain respectively.
Conclusion: This study indicated that quality of life among caregivers of children and adolescents with neurodevelopmental disorders was relatively moderate in all domains and in overall
quality of life. The current study showed that the physical health domain was the most affected
domain.
Keywords: Neurodevelopmental disorders; Caregivers; Quality of life; associated factors; Ethiopia
