Factors associated with parents’ levels of stress in pediatric wards

Abstract

Hospitalization of a child is a stressful experience, increasing parents’ anxiety and deteriorating their satisfaction with the health-care services. This study aimed to assess the level of stress that parents of hospitalized children experienced and evaluate the association of parent’s stress and satisfaction and identify its predictors. Three hundred and fifty-two parents whose children were hospitalized in two pediatric hospitals were enrolled in the study, from February 2015 to April 2015. The Perceived Stress Scale was used to estimate parental stress and the Pyramid Questionnaire was used for assessing parents’ overall satisfaction with care. Parents expressed mild to moderate overall levels of stress. Less-stressed parents felt more satisfied. Being single ( p < .001), having lower educational level ( p = .005), one’s child been hospitalized for more than 14 days ( p = .001), and one’s have visited the hospital many times in the past ( p = .014) were the predictors of experiencing high levels of stress. During pediatric hospitalization, parental needs (communication, interpersonal health care, continuous information, involvement in child’s care) should be considered, so as stress levels to be decreased and parents get more satisfied by the quality of health care provided.