Enhanced Mental Health, Sleep Quality in Mothers of Children With AD Post Treatment

The mental health and sleep quality of mothers of children with mild atopic dermatitis (AD) improved significantly after treatment, according to a study published in the Journal of Asthma and Allergy.

Several past studies have focused on the physical and mental symptoms of children with moderate-to-severe AD before and after treatment. The researchers noted that the health and growth of children with AD are “strongly influenced by the physical and psychosocial situations of their parents.” Therefore, the sleep quality and mental state of the patients’ mothers should also be considered.

Consequently, they analyzed a population of randomly contacted preschool children with AD of varying severity and their mothers from the Second Affiliated Hospital and Yuying Children’s Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University, both of which are in China. Eligible parent-children dyads consisted of children between 1 month and 5 years of age with mothers as their primary caregivers, who accompanied them during sleep. Additional criteria included the children having existing AD based on diagnostic criteria and the mothers having no chronic or psychological diseases.

In total, 120 parent-children dyads enrolled in the study, 90 of which had mild-to-severe AD. The researchers divided the 90 parent-children dyads into 3 groups according to AD severity. Consequently, the remaining 30 children in the study population were considered the healthy control group as they did not have AD or a history of personal or family atopic diseases.

The researchers conducted the study between July 2019 and January 2021 and used scales to assess specific anxiety and depression levels and sleep disorders in the mothers before and after the standard treatment of their children. The mothers’ psychological status and sleep quality were assessed with the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HAD-A and HAD-D) and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), respectively, before and after 1 month of comprehensive treatment of their children.

Child with atopic dermatitis | Image credit: Марина Терехова - stock.adobe.com

Overall, the researchers found that the mothers of children with severe AD had their mental health and sleep qualities most affected before treatment. After treatment, the mental health and sleep quality of mothers in the mild AD group improved significantly, while those of mothers in the moderate and severe AD groups only showed some improvement.

As for the anxiety and depression scores for the children’s mothers, there was a statistically significant difference in the subscale scores among the 4 groups before treatment (P < .05), the anxiety scores of mothers with children in the 3 AD groups being significantly higher than those of mothers with children in the healthy control group (P < .05). Before treatment, only the depression scores of mothers with children in the moderate and severe AD groups were significantly higher than those of the healthy control group (P < .05).

After treatment, the mothers’ HAD-A scores significantly decreased in all 3 AD groups (P < .05), while the HAD-D scores only significantly decreased in the mild and moderate AD groups (P < .05).

In terms of sleep quality, there was a statistically significant difference in the total PSQI scores among the 4 groups of mothers before treatment (P < .05). Also, the total PSQI scores of the mothers with children in the 3 AD groups were higher than those with children in the control group (P < .05). The researchers found that only mothers with children in the mild AD group showed decreased PSQI scores after treatment (P < .05), meaning their sleep quality increased; they did not find significant differences among the other groups.

The researchers acknowledged several limitations to their study, one being that the study mainly explored the psychological wellbeing of mothers of children with AD, which may be affected by outside factors, like family situation and social environment. Also, the study was subjective, so respondents may have had some bias in the questionnaires.

Despite these limitations, the researchers noted that their findings can help develop interventions that allow mothers of children with AD to maintain a healthy and stable mindset during their child’s long-term treatment “to improve the quality of life of affected children and their families.”

“This study reminds clinicians to pay attention to the psychology and sleep quality of caregivers while treating children with AD,” the authors concluded.

Reference

Song J, Gao Y, Wang Y, et al. Assessment of anxiety, depression, and sleep quality in mothers of children with atopic dermatitis: A qualitative questionnaire study. J Asthma Allergy. 2023;16:879-887. doi:10.2147/JAA.S422534