Volume 25, Issue 109, March, 2021

Stress among parents of amblyopic children in Saudi Arabia

Noura Alkulaib^1♦, Mareyah Abdulrahman Alshaikh Husain¹, Fahad Al Wadani²

¹Medical intern, College of Medicine, King Faisal University, Alahsa, Saudi Arabia
²Professor, Department of Ophthalmology, College of Medicine, King Faisal University, Alahsa, Saudi Arabia

^♦Corresponding author
Medical intern, College of Medicine, King Faisal University, Alahsa, Saudi Arabia; Email: Noura.alkulaib@outlook.com

ABSTRACT

It found that stress is significant in mothers of children with amblyopia. In Saudi Arabia the prevalence of amblyopia among children ranges from 1.3 to 3.9%. The amblyopic child's attitude toward treatment is a source of stress for parents. Purpose: To establish the relationship between stress and having an amblyopic child among parents in Saudi Arabia using the Perceived Stress Scale. Methodology: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among 100 parents who has an amblyopic child from July to August 2020. The Study was distributed in two tertiary eye care hospitals in Al Ahsa, in the Eastern province of Saudi Arabia. Result: It showed that Refractive errors were the most frequently reported cause of amblyopia among children by 53%. Most of the children treated by combination of occlusion and glasses with only one child underwent surgery and 3 children had no treatment. We found Moderate to high stress level among 90.4% of mothers compared to 88.2% of fathers but were not statistically significant. High level of stress (93.8%) detected among parents whose children treated by occlusion therapy compared to 66.7% of those who did not receive this kind of treatment. Conclusion: Our study showed moderate level of stress (80%) in the majority of parents of amblyopic children compared with only 10% of them showing high level of stress but was not statistically significant (P=.790).

Keywords: Amblyopia, Stress, children, parent, Saudi Arabia

Medical Science, 2021, 25(109), 532-537

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