LEVEL OF HEALTH ANXIETY IN MOTHERS WITH SICK CHILDREN APPLYING TO THE HOSPITAL IN AN OUTPATIENT SETTING

Abstract

Objective: The study was aimed at searching the level of health anxiety among mothers with sick children, without chronic illness in an outpatient setting by using Beck anxiety inventory (BAI) and short-health anxiety inventory (HAI) test.

Methods: Mothers who brought their ill children to the pediatry unit with acute complains were enrolled in the study as trial group. Mothers with children who had no illness were included in the control group drawn from out-of-hospital settings. All subjects took HAI and BAI tests. Results were analysed using SPSS programe.

Results: Hundred and twelve trial subjects with average age of 32 ± 8 years old and 97 control subjects with average age of 31 ± 7 years old were included in the study. There wasn’t any statistically significance found between groups in respect to age (p=0.483) but average scores of both HAI and BAI of trial groups were significantly higher than those of control group (p values <0.001 and <0.005 respectively).

Conclusion: Mothers who brought their children to hospital with acute complaints had higher level of anxiety as well as it was observed that university-graduate subjects yielded higher HAI scores than those of high school and below graduate education.