Study: Children with disabilities and chronic conditions and parental health

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This study used data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth to examine the implications for the health of parents who have children with a disability or chronic condition.

It compared their health status to that of parents of healthy children between 1994 and 2000.

The study found that mothers of chronically sick or disabled children were twice as likely to report being in "poor" or "fair" health than those without chronically sick or disabled children.

Nearly 11% of these mothers said they were in poor or fair health, compared to just over 5% of mothers without sick or disabled children. There was no observed difference among fathers.

The study tracked children aged 6 to 15 in 2000 who had lived with the same married couple throughout the study period. Health was assessed by the "person most knowledgeable of the child" who in 98% of cases was the mother.

The study found that mothers parenting chronically sick or disabled children were more likely to report being in poor or fair health than those who smoked daily. This was the case even after taking into account differences in mothers' health at the start of the study as well as their age, education, family income, presence and age of other children and smoking habits.

Mothers with disabled or chronically sick children were 1.5 times as likely to report poor or fair health as mothers with healthy children who reported smoking daily.

The study also found that among couples parenting chronically sick or disabled children, the mother's health declined more relative to the father's.

Among couples with a chronically sick or disabled child in 2000, 35% reported that the mother's health deteriorated more than the father's. Almost 31% reported that the father's health had deteriorated more than the mother's.

In contrast, 31% of couples with healthy children reported the father's health declined more than the mother's, while 25% reported the mother's health declined more over the six-year period.

Note: This study focused on couples who remained married through out the period studied. Though divorce is often a consequence of the stress of parenting sick and disabled children, the study focused on the impact on both mothers and fathers, and on the population of parents who remained married.

The study "Children with disabilities and chronic conditions and longer-term parental health" was prepared by Peter Burton, Lynn Lethbridge and Shelly Phipps (Dalhousie University) and is now available free at (http://atlanticresearchdatacentre.dal.ca).

The study was prepared as part of the New Realities in Gender Facing Canadian Society Project organized by Family and Labour Studies Division, which features work conducted in Statistics Canada's Research Data Centres.

Definitions, data sources and methods: survey number 4450.

For information about this study, or to enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact Gustave Goldmann (613-951-1472), Research Data Centre program.