Effect of childhood eczema and asthma on parental sleep and well-being: a prospective comparative study: Eczema, parental sleep and mental well-being
Abstract
BACKGROUND: The psychological impact of childhood atopic eczema on parents and carers is poorly quantified. Objectives To compare the impact of caring for a child with atopic eczema vs. asthma on parents' sleep and well-being. METHODS: Ninety-two parents of 55 children who had moderate to severe atopic eczema or asthma took part in this prospective, questionnaire-based study. It was conducted at regional eczema and asthma outpatient clinics within a U.K. tertiary paediatric hospital. The main outcome measures were the number and duration of parents' sleep disturbances, as well as their anxiety and depression scores. RESULTS: Mothers caring for children with atopic eczema lost a median of 39 min of sleep per night and fathers lost 45 min sleep per night. This compared with a median of 0 min sleep lost by parents who had children with asthma (P < 0.001). These differences were independent of the age of the children, and whether the child came from a single-parent or two-parent family. There was a direct correlation between the severity of sleep disturbance and the level of maternal anxiety (rho = 0.58; P = 0.002) and depression (rho = 0.73; P < 0.001), as well as the level of paternal anxiety (rho = 0.59; P = 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: Compared with looking after a child with chronic asthma, caring for a child with chronic atopic eczema was associated with greater parental sleep disturbances. Disruption to parental sleep correlated with anxiety levels and, in the case of mothers, depression scores.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Extant evidence indicates a positive association between the severity of eczema symptoms in children and heightened levels of worry, exhaustion, and stress in their parents.
“Extant evidence indicates a positive association between the severity of eczema symptoms in children and adverse mental health consequences in their parents, such as symptoms of depression and anxiety [15,16], feelings of helplessness [17], and heightened levels of worry, exhaustion, and stress [18,19].”
Cites
The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale
Zigmond, A. S., & Snaith, R. P. (1983) · Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica · doi:10.1111/j.1600-0447.1983.tb09716.x · Cited by 47,139 · see citing works
The validity of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale
Bjelland, I., Dahl, A. A., Haug, T. T., & Neckelmann, D. (2002) · Journal of Psychosomatic Research · doi:10.1016/s0022-3999(01)00296-3 · Cited by 9,779 · see citing works
British Guideline on the Management of Asthma
British Thoracic Society Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (2008) · Thorax · doi:10.1136/thx.2008.097741 · Cited by 2,018 · see citing works
WILLIAMS, H. C., JBURNEY, P. G., HAY, R. J., ARCHER, C. B., SHIPLEY, M. J., AHUNTER, J. J., BINGHAM, E. A., FINLAY, A. Y., PEMBROKE, A. C., CGRAHAM-BROWN, R. A., et al. (1994) · British Journal of Dermatology · doi:10.1111/j.1365-2133.1994.tb08530.x · Cited by 1,271 · see citing works
Self-citationNormative data for the HADS from a large non-clinical sample
Crawford, J. R., Henry, J. D., Crombie, C., & Taylor, E. P. (2001) · British Journal of Clinical Psychology · doi:10.1348/014466501163904 · Cited by 815 · see citing works
Atopic eczema: its impact on the family and financial cost
Su, J. C., Kemp, A. S., Varigos, G. A., & Nolan, T. M. (1997) · Archives of Disease in Childhood · doi:10.1136/adc.76.2.159 · Cited by 425 · see citing works
Wedzicha, J. A. (2003) · Thorax · doi:10.1136/thorax.58.1.1 · Cited by 228 · see citing works
Psychosocial adjustment in preschool children with atopic eczema.
Daud, L. R., Garralda, M. E., & David, T. J. (1993) · Archives of Disease in Childhood · doi:10.1136/adc.69.6.670 · Cited by 203 · see citing works
Self-citationSleep and psychological disturbance in nocturnal asthma
Stores, G., Ellis, A. J., Wiggs, L. D., Crawford, C., & Thomson, A. (1998) · Archives of Disease in Childhood · doi:10.1136/adc.78.5.413 · Cited by 131 · see citing works
Psychological disturbance in atopic eczema: the extent of the problem in school‐aged children
Absolon, C. M., Cottrell, D. J., Eldridge, S. M., & Glover, M. (1997) · British Journal of Dermatology · doi:10.1046/j.1365-2133.1997.18121896.x · Cited by 130 · see citing works
Sleep difficulties and their management in preschoolers with atopic eczema
REID, P., & LEWIS-JONES, M. S. (1995) · Clinical and Experimental Dermatology · doi:10.1111/j.1365-2230.1995.tb01280.x · Cited by 124 · see citing works
The relation of stress and family environment to atopic dermatitis symptoms in children
Gil, K. M., Keefe, F. J., Sampson, H. A., McCaskill, C. C., Rodin, J., & Crisson, J. E. (1987) · Journal of Psychosomatic Research · doi:10.1016/0022-3999(87)90016-x · Cited by 111 · see citing works
Atopic eczema: Its social and financial costs
Kemp, A. (1999) · Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health · doi:10.1046/j.1440-1754.1999.00343.x · Cited by 86 · see citing works
HARTH, S. C., Johnstone, R., & Thong, Y. H. (1992) · Journal of Medical Ethics · doi:10.1136/jme.18.2.86 · Cited by 76 · see citing works
Parents' quality of life and respiratory symptoms in young children with mild wheeze
Osman, L. M., Baxter-Jones, A. D. G., & Helms, P. J. (2001) · European Respiratory Journal · doi:10.1183/09031936.01.17202540 · Cited by 54 · see citing works
Sleep problems in children with common medical disorders
Bandla, H., & Splaingard, M. (2004) · Pediatric Clinics of North America · doi:10.1016/s0031-3955(03)00185-8 · Cited by 50 · see citing works
Gender differences in comorbid anxiety and mood disorders
Ochoa, L. F., Beck, A. T., & Steer, R. A. (1992) · American Journal of Psychiatry · doi:10.1176/ajp.149.10.1409b · Cited by 22 · see citing works
Sleep characteristics of asthmatics in the first four years of life: a comparative study.
Tirosh, E., Scher, A., Sadeh, A., et al. (1993) · Archives of Disease in Childhood · doi:10.1136/adc.68.4.481 · Cited by 17 · see citing works
Investigation of sleep disorders
Davey, M. (2005) · Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health · doi:10.1111/j.1440-1754.2005.00528.x · Cited by 13 · see citing works
Do You Ever Take a Sleep History?
Millman, R. P. (1999) · Annals of Internal Medicine · doi:10.7326/0003-4819-131-7-199910050-00010 · Cited by 12 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
The burden of atopic dermatitis: summary of a report for the National Eczema Association.
Drucker, A. M., Wang, A. R., Li, W.-Q., Sevetson, E., Block, J. K., & Qureshi, A. A. (2017) · Journal of Investigative Dermatology · doi:10.1016/j.jid.2016.07.012 · Cited by 720 · see citing works
Meijer, A. M., & van den Wittenboer, G. L. H. (2007) · Journal of Family Psychology · doi:10.1037/0893-3200.21.1.49 · Cited by 118 · see citing works
Update on the pathogenesis of atopic dermatitis.
Criado, P. R., Miot, H. A., Bueno-Filho, R., Ianhez, M., Criado, R. F. J., & de Castro, C. C. S. (2024) · Anais brasileiros de dermatologia · doi:10.1016/j.abd.2024.06.001 · Cited by 66 · see citing works
Kobusiewicz, A. K., Tarkowski, B., Kaszuba, A., Lesiak, A., Narbutt, J., & Zalewska-Janowska, A. (2023) · Frontiers in Medicine · doi:10.3389/fmed.2023.1066495 · Cited by 20 · see citing works
Chong, Y. Y., Kwan, J. Y. M., Yau, P. T., Cheng, H. Y., & Chien, W. T. (2023) · Healthcare · doi:10.3390/healthcare11202708 · Cited by 6 · see citing works
“…evidence indicates a positive association between the severity of eczema symptoms in children and adverse mental health consequences in their parents, such as symptoms of depression and anxiety [15,16], feelings of helplessness [17], and heightened levels of worry, exhaustion, and stress [18,19].”
Background
- Authors
- Moore, K., David, T. J., Murray, C. S., Child, F., & Arkwright, P. D.
- Affiliations
- University of Manchester (GB)
- Venue
- British Journal of Dermatology
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2006-01-26
- Volume
- 154
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 514-518
- ISSN
- 0007-0963 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2163454642
- Cited by
- 149
- References
- 20
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 21 · 2022: 13 · 2021: 6 · 2020: 8 · 2019: 11 · 2018: 11 · 2017: 6 · 2016: 8 · 2015: 6 · 2014: 6 · 2013: 5 · 2012: 11
- FWCI
- 5.31
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Licence
- Locations
- British Journal of Dermatology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Research Explorer (The University of Manchester) (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Dermatology › Dermatology and Skin Diseases
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Asthma and respiratory diseases
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Family and Disability Support Research
- Keywords
- pediatric atopic dermatitis, atopic dermatitis, childhood asthma, parental anxiety, parental depression, parental well-being, caregiver burden, mothers, fathers, chronic illness caregiving
- MeSH terms
- Anxiety, Asthma, Child, Child, Preschool, Chronic Disease, Depression, Dermatitis, Atopic, Family Health, Female, Home Nursing, Humans, Male, Parents, Prospective Studies, Psychiatric Status Rating Scales, Sleep Wake Disorders
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
