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. 2020 Oct;11(4):530-537.
doi: 10.1055/s-0040-1713581. Epub 2020 Jul 2.

Level of Anxiety and Depression and Its Clinical and Sociodemographic Determinants among the Parents of Children with Cancer Undergoing Chemotherapy

Shivayan Srivastava  1 , Vikas Menon  2 , Smita Kayal  1 , Meenatchi Hari  1 , Biswajit Dubashi  1
Affiliations

Level of Anxiety and Depression and Its Clinical and Sociodemographic Determinants among the Parents of Children with Cancer Undergoing Chemotherapy

Shivayan Srivastava et al. J Neurosci Rural Pract. 2020 Oct.

Abstract

Objective The aim of this study was to find the level of anxiety and depression and its clinical and sociodemographic determinants among the parents of children with cancer on chemotherapy. Materials and Methods Hamilton-A (HAM-A) and Hamilton-D (HAM-D) scales were used to assess anxiety and depression, respectively, in this cross-sectional study. The assessed parents were administered the questionnaire along with collection of sociodemographic and clinical data through a structured data collection proforma between August 2018 and November 2018. Statistical Analysis The sociodemographic factors and the clinical characteristics were analyzed and have been expressed descriptively and associations between the sociodemographic characteristics, clinical characteristics of the children, and the calculated scores obtained from HAM-A and HAM-D scales were analyzed using chi-squared test. A p -value of <0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results Out of 101 parents, 86 (85.14%) were found to have a mild, moderate, or severe depression score. Parents of children with solid tumors undergoing chemotherapy had higher frequency of severe and very severe depression. Majority of the parents (56.4%) assessed with HAM-A scale had mild level of anxiety that was significantly affected by the level of education. Conclusion This study confirmed a very high frequency of depression and anxiety in the parents of children affected with cancer undergoing chemotherapy. Type of cancer (solid or hematological) was found to be a predictor of depression, while education level was found to be a predictor of anxiety in the parents.

Keywords: anxiety; cancer; depression; parents; pediatric.

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Conflict of interest statement

Ethical ApprovalConflict of Interest The study was conducted according to the Helsinki Declaration. Ethical approval was obtained from the institute ethical committee. Number—JIP/IEC/2018/190.This project was performed under ICMR-STS 2018. None declared.

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