The Department of Evolutionary and Educational Psychology of the Universidad de Granada, has studied these reactions in the parents and patients aged between 4 and 16 years old, admitted in the University Hospital San Cecilio of Granada and the Local Hospital of Antequera, in Malaga.
The study has considered paediatric patients admitted for a maximum of six nights. According to the researchers, Antonio Fernández Castillo and Isabel López Naranjo, the presence of stress in accordance with the length of the stay in hospital grows very fast from the second and the third day and tends to remain stable in the following days. Children between 4 and 6 years old get significantly more stressed than adolescents. According to the researcher, the latter have more knowledge of the situation and more strategies to deal with it.
In order to know the causes for stress in these patients, they have analysed four types of fear. According to Antonio Fernández, the “fear of physical injury” especially affects young children, whereas older children also feel “fear of death”. In general, fear of physical violence and closed spaces were less stressful.
Stress in parents
The study has been completed with the perception of stress in parents of paediatric patients. The admission of a child in hospital was “extremely stressful” for more than 65% of parents. However, this degree decreases as the cultural standard of parents increases. According to the researchers, this is because “parents with a higher academic education can understand the situation better, as well as the information provided by doctors”. Changes observed in the child as a consequence of the disease and alteration of everyday life are the “stressful factors”, among those considered in the study, that explain the state of anxiety of the parents. Other important aspects are to be expecting information, the human treatment received by the sanitary staff, etc. Although, on the other hand, the data reflect a total trust in the professional behaviour of the sanitary staff.
The researcher considers that “we must promote the communication channels between sanitary staff and the patient’s relatives”, as this will contribute to reduce the state of anxiety of the parents.
Reference:
Prof Antonio Fernández Castillo. Department of Evolutionary and Educational Psychology.
Phone number: 958 249 037 / 958 243 968.
E-mail: afcastil@ugr.es
