Post-traumatic Stress Symptoms among Iranian Parents of Children during Cancer Treatment

Abstract

Support of parents of children with cancer requires healthcare personnel to be knowledgeable about the prevalence of post-traumatic stress symptoms among Iranian parents of children with cancer. This study was conducted to fulfill this aim in the South-East of Iran. Using the Impact of Event Scale –Revised, for parents of children with cancer, 200 parents in two hospitals supervised by Kerman University of Medical Sciences, were assessed. The total mean score of post-traumatic stress symptoms was 41.70. Among all categories of the Impact of Event Scale –Revised, the highest mean belonged to the category of ‘intrusion’ 16.03 (SD  =  6.24) and the lowest one belonged to the category of ‘hyperarousal’ 10.68 (SD  =  4.58). Based on the results, mothers had higher post-traumatic stress symptoms compared with fathers (p < 0.05). Adjusted odds ratio showed that the prevalence of post-traumatic stress symptoms among mothers was 2.49 times more than that among fathers (p  =  0.01). There was no association between sociodemographic data and post-traumatic stress symptoms. More research is needed to elucidate the Iranian parents’ experience of having children with cancer.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors thank participants and staff from Bahonar and Afzalipour Hospitals for their assistance with this research.

Declaration of Interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.