Qualidade de vida e transtornos mentais em cuidadores de crianças com necessidades especiais

Abstract

Objective: to analyze the relationship between quality of life and presence of common mental disorder in caregivers of children who need special health care. Methods: cross--sectional study with 87 caregivers of children with special health care needs. A sociodemographic questionnaire, the World Health Organization Quality of Life-bref and the Self--Reporting Questionnaire were used. Descriptive statistical analyses were performed based on frequencies and infe-rential with Mann-Whitney, Kruskal-Wallis and Spearman’s Correlation Coefficient tests. Results: mean rank differen-ces were found in the relationship between responsible ca-regiver and common mental disorder; caregiver has some grievance, undergoes psychopharmacological treatment and psychological monitoring and the physical and gene-ral domains of quality of life and common mental disorder. Moreover, there was an inverse correlation between the do-mains of quality of life and common mental disorder. Con-clusion: the lower the socres in the quality of life domains, the higher the development of common mental disorder in caregivers.