Zahra Habibi Babadi, Hossein Talebi, Hamid Reza Abtahi and Narges Tork Ladani
Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Iran
Posters & Accepted Abstracts: J Depress Anxiety
Statement of the Problem: Early rehabilitation such as cochlear implantation (CI) helps reducing the negative effects of hearing impairment on children. Parents of these children may feel angry, sorrow, guiltiness and anxiety. In addition, the fact that a child should go through an invasive intervention, may affect families negatively. Aim: The aim of this study includes measurement of anxiety level experienced by parents of children with CI and comparison between the level of experienced anxiety in parents of children with CI and parents of children with normal hearing. Materials & Methodology: This study was carried out on 25 parents whose child had cochlear implanted for six months and also 25 parents of normal children. Parentsâ�� demographic data were collected. The Beck anxiety inventory was given to parents of both groups. The results were analyzed according to the questionnaire instructions. Results: Parentsâ�� average age was 32.56�±4.4 and 31.76�±5.25 in the cochlear implant group and normal group respectively. No significant correlation between parentsâ�� educational level and the score achieved by the Beck anxiety inventory was observed (p>.05). There was significant difference between the scores of the parents of cochlear implanted children and normal group (p<.05). Mild, moderate and severe anxiety levels were observed in 44% of the cochlear implanted childrenâ��s parents. On the other hand, 32% had mild and moderate anxiety levels and no severe anxiety was observed in normal hearing childrenâ��s parents. Conclusions: Due to the significantly higher total average and also higher levels of anxiety in the parents of children with CI we should pay more attention to this group. Some studies show the effects of demographic characteristics such as economical and educational levels on parental anxiety. But, likewise our study, various studies report the ineffectiveness of demographic characteristics on anxiety levels. Perhaps it is best to pay more attention to the ways of controlling anxiety in such families by controlling the environmental factors. This way, a child with implanted cochlea will have a smoother learning road ahead and therefore they can live easier. Recent Publications 1. Sarant J and Garrard P (2014) Parenting stress in parents of children with cochlear implants: Relationships among parent stress, child language, and unilateral versus bilateral implants. Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education. 19(1):85-106. 2. Gurbuz M K et al. (2013) Parental anxiety and influential factors in the family with hearing impaired children: before and after cochlear implantation. Journal of International Advanced Otology. 9(1):46-54. 3. Sahli S and Belgin E (2011) Understanding family roles perception of the mothers who have cochlear implanted child. Int. Adv. Otol. 7(2):201-207. 4. Kaviani H and Mousavi A S (2008) Psychometric properties of the Persian version of Beck anxiety inventory (BAI). Tehran Univ. Med. J. 66(2):136-140. 5. ��sberg K K, Vogel J J and Bowers C A (2008) Exploring correlates and predictors of stress in parents of children who are deaf: implications of perceived social support and mode of communication. Journal of Child and Family Studies. 17(4):486-99.
Zahra Habibi Babadi has completed her B.Sc. in Audiology from Isfahan University of Medical Sciences.
Email:zahrahbb@yahoo.com
