The Relationship between the Characteristics of Mentally Retarded Persons and the Quality of life Perception of their Parents

Abstract

Objective: The study was designed to assess the level of quality of life (QOL) in the parents of individuals with mental retardation (MR) and its relationship with the characteristics of the suffering individuals. Study Design: Quasi experimental research design. Place: The study was carried out in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Allied/DHQ Hospitals, PMC Faisalabad, Almasoom center Faisalabad and Amine Maktab special institute for mentally retarded children Lahore. Duration of the study: The study was conducted during July 2007 to December 2007.  Method: 98 mothers and 91 fathers of mentally retarded individuals from public Hospitals and centers for mentally retarded children in Faisalabad and Lahore participated in this study through purposive convenient sampling technique. Quality of life was measured by WHO QOL-BREF (Validated Urdu Version) while demographic variables were recorded on a demographic sheet. The results were obtained by using analysis of variance (ANOVA) on SPSS 13. Results: Mothers had scored higher on QOL environment domain when their MR Child had the ability to do judgments in daily living, F (1, 97) = 4.640, p < .05Fathers of the MR persons who can reason have scored higher on this domain (M = 16.105) than the fathers of the MR persons who can not reason (M = 13.694), F (1, 90) = 6.692, p < .05. ANOVA showed differences in the QOL scores of the fathers on psychological, F (1, 90) = 4.819, p < .05, social relationships, F (1, 90) = 5.174, p < .05 and environment domain, F (1, 90) = 5.320, p < .05 depending upon the ability of MR person to travel public transport; independent sample t test produced enough evidence to establish the effects on all four domains of QOL. Conclusion: In the face of the evidence of high deterioration in quality of life of the parents in absence of judgments to daily living, reasoning, and ability to travel public transport, it is to be communicated to parents and teachers of MR persons to pay more attention on the training of these skills. Further more physicians, psychiatrists, other health care professionals and members of the family are to be sensitized in identifying this disturbance in the quality of life perception in order to take measures against it so that family functioning may not be disturbed.