MSc Physiotherapy, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, 2009 / HIV is having devastating effects on Africa as a whole and more specifically on
Sub-Saharan Africa. Children are vulnerable to the disease and in most cases
being hit the hardest. Parenting at the best of times involves some form of
stress, and caring for a chronically ill child increases the parenting stress levels.
Antiretroviral treatment has a positive effect on children with HIV, however it is
not well understood what effect antiretroviral treatment has on the parenting
stress levels of the caregivers of children with HIV.
The aim of the study was to establish whether caregivers of children diagnosed
with HIV show a change in stress levels after commencement of anti-retroviral
treatment for their children. The objectives of the study were: to determine if any
of the subsections of the PSI-SF were affected by the commencement of antiretroviral
treatment in the children; to determine if a correlation existed between
the CD4 count of the child and the parenting stress level of the caregiver and to
determine whether the age of the child impacted on the scores of the PSI-SF.
The demographic data of the participants were also analysed.
This study involved secondary analysis of existing data for the study "A
longitudinal study of neurodevelopmental delay in HIV positive children"
conducted by Joanne Potterton utilising a longitudinal pre-post test study design
where participants were compared to their own baseline scores. The Parenting
Stress Index Short Form (PSI-SF) was used to establish the parenting stress
levels within its three different subsections. The PSI-SF was completed by the
caregivers at visit one, two and three. These visits were to the Harriet Shezi
Clinic at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital, Soweto, Johannesburg. The children
were antiretroviral naïve at visit one, and at visit two which was six months later,
they commenced antiretroviral treatment with a six months follow-up which was
visit three.
iv
Forty-five participants were included in the study. The paired ‘t’ test showed a
significant change (‘p’ = 0.02) in the subsections Parent Child Dysfunctional
Interaction and Difficult Child(change in mean -3.31 and -2.78 respectively), while
the subsection of Parenting Distress had no significant change between visit one
and visit two (change in mean -2.09). The change in mean between visit two and
three was -1.84 for the Parental Distress subsection, 0.6 for the Parenting Child
Dysfunctional Interaction subsection and 0.8 for the Difficult Child subsection.
The paired ‘t’ test was applied to visit one and three and the subsection Parenting
Distress showed the greatest positive change of 'p' = 0.00 with a change in mean
of -3.93. There was no correlation between the CD4 count of the child and the
PSI of the caregiver at any of the visits (r=-0.2, 0.11,0.3, p=0.15, 0.5, 0.06
respectively). There was no correlation between the age of the child and the
parenting stress of the caregiver at any of the visits (r=0.13,0.08,0.5 p=0.39,0.6
and 0.1 respectively).
The stress levels of the caregivers decreased over the study period however
there was no significant decrease with the commencement of antiretroviral treatment.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:wits/oai:wiredspace.wits.ac.za:10539/8219 |
| Date | 25 June 2010 |
| Creators | Verster, Linley Joan |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | application/pdf |
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