Psychosocial care needs of the parents having children with epilepsy

Abstract

Aim The present study aimed to assess the psychosocial care needs of parents having children with epilepsy.

Methods Descriptive research design was adapted and it was conducted in neurology OPD at NIMHANS, Bangalore. Fifty subjects that are parents having children with epilepsy were selected after considering the inclusion and exclusion criteria through simple random sampling method. The study subjects were interviewed for socio demographic characteristics and psychosocial care needs using Socio Demographic Data Sheet and Parent Report Psychosocial Care Needs Scale (Austin et al 1998) respectively. ANOVA and t test, Frequency and mean percentage were used to identify the psychosocial care needs of the parents.

Results Majority of the parents received lesser information about seizure than they wanted and expressed strong need for information about epilepsy diagnostic procedures, treatment and management at home and school and they were not expressed much concern and fear towards causes and complications of the children's seizure. There were no significant associations seen between parent psychosocial care needs and their socio demographic characteristic but family history of epilepsy and number of drugs used by the children was associated significantly.

Conclusion The findings showed that majority of the study subjects received lesser information than they needed about epilepsy and not had much concern about the causes and the complications of epilepsy, but at the same time most of the parents expressed that they need information about the management of children's seizure.

Keywords

Epilepsy - Psychosocial care needs - Parents & children - Seizure - Management of epilepsy

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