Parental Illness and Life Satisfaction among Young People: A Cross-Sectional Study of the Importance of School Factors

Background: The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between parental illness and life satisfaction among Danish adolescents and the potential modifying effect of positive school experiences. Moreover, we describe the use of student counsellor services among adolescents with and without ill parents. Methods: Data included 9565 adolescents primarily aged 13–19 years, who participated in the cross-sectional Well-being Despite Study. Multilevel logistic regression models including joint effect analyses were performed. Results: Parental illness was strongly associated with life satisfaction. Negative school experiences were more frequent among adolescents with ill parents and strongly associated with low life satisfaction for all students. However, joint effect analyses did not show effect modification by school-related variables. The odds ratio of having talked to a student counsellor was highest for adolescents with multiple ill parents, compared to no ill parents. Conclusions: Parental illness is a strong predictor of low life satisfaction among adolescents; the impact depends on number of ill parents, whether parental illness is physical or mental, and their level of impairment. Positive school experiences were less frequent in adolescents of ill parents and did not counteract the effect of parental illness on life satisfaction.

Employment status monitoring in an Argentinian population of patients with multiple sclerosis: Particularities of a developing country

BACKGROUND

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a neurological chronic disease that causes a number of physical, cognitive and emotional symptoms. The identification of these factors will allow mitigating unemployment and improve quality of life of patients. The Buffalo Vocational Monitoring Survey (BVMS) is a tool to characterize Work-Challenged patients.

OBJECTIVE

To describe and analyze BVMS data in people with multiple sclerosis (PwMS) from Argentina. To study the association with physical, cognitive and psychiatric morbidity in employed patients, comparing the performance of MS Work-Challenged and MS Work-Stable patients, with and without accommodations.

METHODS

119 MS patients were administered the Argentina adaptation of the BVMS, and completed measures of physical disability, fatigue, depression, cognitive processing speed, memory and verbal fluency.

RESULTS

65.54% of the patients were employed and 19.32% were unemployed, the remaining having roles of housewife, students and disability retirees. Within the employed subgroup, 60.26% were working as employees and 39.74% were self-employed. Cognitive and clinical variables differentiate patients with and without negative events and accommodations (p >  0.05).

CONCLUSIONS

This Spanish version BVMS is considered a new tool to monitor employment difficulties in Spanish-speaking MS patients. MS Work-Challenged had a higher depression, fatigue and worse performance in cognitive variables.

Young People's Response to Parental Neurological Disorder: A Structured Review

Introduction

A significant paucity of literature exists relating to the impact on children of parental neurological disorder, with the exception of multiple sclerosis. The wider literature in this field (parental cancer, depression, alcoholism, HIV/AIDS) exhibits the many potential challenges young people might experience during serious parental illness. Given this, a literature review of parental neurological disorder is long overdue.

Methods

This review is structured around the World Health Organisation (WHO) classification of neurological disorders. The WHO identifies 10 common neurological disorders; dementia, epilepsy, headache, multiple sclerosis, neuroinfections, neurological disorders associated with malnutrition, pain associated with neurological disorders, Parkinson's disease, stroke, and traumatic brain injury. A comprehensive search of the MEDLINE database was performed using key terms for each of the 10 conditions. Results for each condition were divided in to "negative", "positive and/or neutral" and "other" child responses.

Results

The search yielded a total of 6247 titles, of which 184 underwent a full-text assessment. Sixty-five met all eligibility criteria and were thus included in the review. A number of negative issues emerged across parental conditions including the prevalence of child mood disorders, parent-child role reversal, children's need for information on the parental condition, the importance of family cohesion, the negative effect of parental psychopathology and differences between male and female children. A limited number of positive outcomes were evident in a minority of parental conditions. Outcomes measured and methodologies employed were highly heterogeneous.

Conclusion

Children generally respond negatively to parental neurological disorder. Responses varied between neurological disorders, suggesting the need for parental disease-specific guidance and clinical management where required.

Reproductive history of the Danish multiple sclerosis population: A register-based study

Background:

A diagnosis of multiple sclerosis (MS) may impact the choice of parenthood.

Objective:

To investigate the number of live births, abortions and ectopic pregnancies among persons with MS.

Methods:

From the Danish Multiple Sclerosis Registry, we extracted data from all persons diagnosed with MS from 1960 to 1996 and matched each MS person with four reference persons. We used a negative binomial regression model for the live births and Poisson regression model for abortions and ectopic pregnancies. The total fertility rate (TFR) during 1960–2016 and the annual number of live births in the MS population were analysed.

Results:

Persons with MS had fewer children than reference persons. Fewer women with MS had elective abortions after diagnosis (incidence rate ratio (IRR) = 0.88; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.78–1.00) than reference persons. There was no difference regarding the number of elective abortions, spontaneous abortions or ectopic pregnancies after onset. The TFR was lower for women with MS than for reference persons, and the number of annual live births by MS persons increased during 1960–2016.

Conclusion:

MS seems to considerably impact reproductive choices, especially after clinical diagnosis, resulting in the MS population having fewer children than the general population.

Mental health among children of mothers with multiple sclerosis: A Danish cohort and register-based study

BACKGROUND

Multiple sclerosis is associated with an increased risk of developing physical, cognitive, and mental health problems. Current studies have demonstrated variating outcomes of parental multiple sclerosis mental health problems and their children's mental health development.

OBJECTIVE

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether maternal multiple sclerosis is associated with the mental health status of their child.

METHODS

Data from the Danish National Birth Cohort (DNBC) were merged with information from the Danish Multiple Sclerosis Registry. Two proxies, total difficulties score and prediction of any psychiatric diagnosis based on the strengths and difficulties questionnaire, were used to measure the mental health status of the children. The two groups were compared using Mann-Whitney and logistic regression analyses.

RESULTS

For the total difficulties score the control and exposed group consisted of respectively n = 42,016 and n = 40, and for the prediction of any psychiatric diagnosis respectively n = 16,829 and n = 17. We found no statistically significant association between maternal multiple sclerosis and mental health status on neither of the proxies.

CONCLUSION

Maternal multiple sclerosis did not show any association with the mental health status of their children at age eleven. On the contrary, other studies conclude that there is an association between maternal multiple sclerosis and the child's mental health status, one especially mediated by the maternal mental health status.