Post-traumatic stress disorder in parents of children hospitalized in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU): medical and demographic risk factors.
BACKGROUND
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among parents of neonates hospitalized in the Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICU) stays an underestimated problem. We determined the incidence of PTSD in parents and pointed out medical and demographic risk factors for PTSD in neonates hospitalized in the NICU.


METHODS
The study involved 39 mothers and 27 fathers of 42 infants aged 1 to 16 months who were hospitalized in the NICU of a Children's University Hospital during the neonatal period. As a measure of PTSD we used the Polish version of the Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R). The current level of stress was measured using the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10). The author's questionnaire contained demographic and medical information on the infants hospitalized in the NICU and their parents. Data were statistically analyzed.


RESULTS
The incidence of PTSD and levels of stress did not differ in the group of mothers and fathers. There was a statistically significant difference in the severity of PTSD symptoms in general (p=0.006) and the severity of symptoms of intrusion (p=0.009) and arousal (p=0.015), which were more pronounced in mothers of children hospitalized in the NICU than in their fathers. In the multivariate models perceived stress was the only predictor that significantly affected the rate of PTSD symptoms in parents.


CONCLUSIONS
Since PTSD is a very common problem in parents of children hospitalized in the NICU and estimating the risk of its occurrence on the basis of collected data is not possible, the parents of all those children should be considered at high risk.
Department of Anaesthesiological and Intensive Care Nursing, Faculty of Nursing and Health Sciences, Medical University of Lublin, Szkolna Street 18, 20-124 Lublin, Poland, a.aftyka@gmail.com.
Anna
A
Aftyka
Beata
B
Rybojad
Ilona
I
Rozalska-Walaszek
Patryk
P
Rzoñca
Ewa
E
Humeniuk
D000328:Adult; D005220:Fathers / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007363:Intensive Care Units, Neonatal; D008297:Male; D009035:Mothers / Q000523:psychology*; D012737:Sex Factors; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology*