Quality of life among caregivers of children with autism in Qatif city, Eastern province, Saudi Arabia

Zainab Abdulmohsen Al–Rashed; Erum Khalid

Volume : VI, Issue : IX, September - 2017

Quality of life among caregivers of children with autism in Qatif city, Eastern province, Saudi Arabia

Zainab Abdulmohsen Al Rashed, Erum Khalid

Abstract :

C� for a child with autism has significant effects on caregiver quality of life (QOL). We evaluated QOL among 76 caregivers of children with autism who were enrolled from 2 autism centres in Qatif city, Eastern province, Saudi Arabia. The Arabic version of the Standard Recall Short Form 36 was used to collect demographic and caregiver QOL information. QOL was classified into 8 subscale domains; of these, the general health domain had the highest scores (66.8 � 18.8) and the vitality domain had the lowest scores (49.7 � 19.6). There was a significant positive correlation between caregiver family income and physical functioning domain score (p = 0.023), and between relation to the child and role limitation due to physical problems domain score (p = 0.004) and general health domain score (p = 0.043). This study highlights a critical need for service centre availability to caretakers of children with autism.