Parental Quality of Life: Caring for an Infant or Toddler with a Tracheostomy at Home

Abstract

Purpose: To explore the relationships between stress, coping, duration of tracheostomy, and quality of life (QOL) of parental caregivers who care for a child with a tracheostomy at home.Design: A cross-sectional correlational design was used to study parents who care for a child with a tracheostomy at home. Family Inventory of Life Events, Family Crisis Oriented Personal Evaluation Scale, and Psychological General Well-Being Index were used to measure stress, coping, and QOL, respectively. Data were collected using both online and paper-pencil format.Main Outcome Variable: quality of life.Results: Parents who care for their infants/toddlers with a tracheostomy at home were found to be in moderate distress. Mean age of the participants was 33 years (N = 71), and the average duration of the child’s tracheotomy was 18.22 (SD = 9.59) months. Multivariate analysis showed a significant inverse relationship between QOL and stress. QOL was significantly associated with coping, B = 19.91, β = .43, p<.001.