Impact of autism on parents/caregivers quality of life in Tabuk

To investigate the impact of Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) on the quality of life (QOL) of parents of the affected child and identify predictors of deteriorating QOL.

A cross-sectional study was carried out at the Autistic Center, Ministry of Health, Tabuk city included a sample of parents or caregivers of autistic-children (aged ≤ 14 years) throughout the study period (August-November, 2019). A self-administered questionnaire-was used consisted of socio-demographic variables of the parent/caregiver, autistic childs data and the different items of the WHOQOL-BREF questionnaire.

The study included 100 parents/caregivers. The age of more than half of them (54%) ranged between 31 and 40 years. More than half (58%) were females. The second level of autism was observed among 47% of the affected children while levels one and three were observed among 40% and 13% of them, respectively. Concerning the different domains of QOL, 11%, 21%, 8% and 15% of the parents/caregivers had poor physical, psychological, social and environmental domains of QOL. Overall, 7% of parents/caregivers had poor QOL. Parents/caregivers aged between 31-40 years, unmarried, low income, whose autistic children aged 3 years, had duration of the disease of 3 years were more likely to have poor overall QOL compared to their counterparts.

Overall quality of life of parents/caregivers of autistic children in Tabuk was good. The most affected domains were the psychological and environmental domains. The majority of them have self-perceived their quality of-life as neutral and were satisfied with their general health.