“Quality Of Life Assessment Of Caregivers Of Children Diagnosed With Autism Spectrum Disorder In Autistic Centers Of Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkha, Pakistan”

Abstract

Autism spectrum disorder are neurodevelopmental diseases that effect social, behavioral and communication skills of the patient, commonly diagnosed at an average age of 3.1 years. Due to young age , these children are fully dependent on their caregivers. The impact of this continuous responsibility and job impacts the life of caregivers personally, psychologically, physically, socially and economically. This research will assess the quality of life of caregivers of autistic children and its impact on different aspects of their lives. A cross-sectional study was carried out, with a sample size of 96,  collected through cluster sampling from five different autistic centers based in Peshawar. The result were quantified and analyzed to find that the quality of life of 8.3%  the sample size was severely effected, 83.4% was moderately effected and 8.3% was mildly effected by their caring duties. Significant co relations were found between quality of life with different parameters. Most significantly with financial matters (.748), followed by carer choices and stress (.745) > social life (.743)  > personal satisfaction (.659) > personal growth (.292). Further ANOVA test was performed with socioeconomic status as the factor and Qol scale as the dependable variable, which came out to the significant value of .013. The negative impact of the added responsibility on the carer’s quality of life is also supported by other similar studies done internationally in differentstudies done in China,  America, India and Malaysia. Same results were also obtained on the National level of Pakistan.