Influence of single parenthood on cardiopulmonary function in pediatric patients with sickle cell anemia

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Abstract
Psychosocial stress is increasingly acknowledged for families having children with chronic illness. 1 Pediatric chronic illness impacts family structure, parental functioning, and health outcomes of the child. 2 Sickle cell disease (SCD) is a chronic disease that can progress to a spectrum of complications, including vaso-occlusive pain crisis and cardiopulmonary dysfunction. 3 The disease begins to manifest in early childhood, during which life-threatening conditions can develop rapidly. Chronic disease management, frequent infections, and unpredictable pain episodes cause anxiety and depression in children with SCD. 4,5 Families, especially mothers, are a primary resource for stress management and mental health needs. 6 The demands of caring for a chronically ill child and the feeling of powerlessness over the child's illness often associate with emotional stress in parents and impact family conflicts. 7 Single parenthood, often single motherhood, is more common among families having children with SCD (60%) than the general African-American population (46%). 8 Parental distress related to SCD is considerably more difficult to manage for single parents. 7,9 The parent-child relationship, in turn, significantly affects a child's perception of stress in life. 5,10 Recent studies have begun to investigate the impact of single parenthood on SCD outcomes. 11

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