Depression Levels among Mothers of Children with Leukemia

The aim of the study was to evaluate the depression levels in mothers of children with leukemia.

This single centred, cross-sectional study was conducted among mothers of children with leukemia at the Hematology and Oncology research center, Baghaie-Pour clinic in Yazd City during February through December, 2013. The study sample included 58 mothers with 1-12 year old children with the diagnosis or treated at the Shahid Sadoughi hospital. Socio-demographic characteristics were gathered using a socio-demographic form and Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) was applied to all mothers to assess symptoms of depression. All variables that could potentially impact dependent outcome measures of the BDI were analyzed. These factors were mothers' age, mothers' education, and socioeconomic status of the family, gender of child.

The analysis revealed that mothers of children leukemia had a severe level of depression (p=0.01). 41 participants (70.6%) indicated their current depressive symptoms as being in the severe range, 12 participants (20.6%) in the moderate range, and 5 participants (8.6%) in the mild range or no depression. There was an inverse correlation between the educational level of the mothers and the heads of household, their occupational status, their marital status, their socio-economic condition and depression (p≤0.05). The depression scores of the mothers of patients were higher than those of the controls.

Depression ideation is common among mothers of children with leukemia. There are strong associations with socio-economic condition and high depression levels.