Health-Related Quality of Life of Mothers of Children With Phenylketonuria

Background: Quality of life is one of the pivotal notions of the World Health Organization’s perspective. Regarding the complications of Phenylketonuria (PKU) disease in children, it seems that this disease affects the quality of life of these mothers. Objectives: Investigating the quality of life of mothers with PKU children and to compare it with that of mothers of normal children. Materials & Methods: This case-control study was conducted on 65 mothers with PKU children and 122 mothers with normal children in Hamadan City, Iran, in 2018 (selected randomly from the general population). For data collection, mothers filled a demographic profile questionnaire and the Iranian version of the World Health Organization Quality of Life-Brief. The obtained data were analyzed using the independent t test and univariate analysis of variance (α=0.05) in SPSS V. 16. Results: The Mean±SD total scores of quality of life of mothers with PKU children and mothers with normal children were 11.74±1.91 and 14.37±1.58, respectively and the difference between the two groups was statistically significant (P<0.001). There was also a significant relationship between the quality of life of mothers with PKU children and the age of the child at the onset of treatment (P<0.05). Conclusion: According to the current study results that indicated the low quality of life of the mothers of PKU children, it is recommended that rehabilitation and psychological interventions be included in pediatric treatment programs to improve the quality of life of mothers.