Caregiver burden and inflammation in parents of children with special healthcare needs

Children with special healthcare needs (CSHCN) are a vulnerable population that require specialized services and are often cared for by parents. These parents experience psychological, physiological, and potential inflammatory dysfunction related to amplified caregiving burden which may increase with the complexity of the child’s condition. Due to the potential for inflammatory dysregulation, we aimed to compare caregiver burden and inflammation of parents with CSHCN based on the severity of the child’s condition to parents of typically developing children. A cross-sectional design that included parents of typically developing children (n = 60), non-complex chronic disease (n = 28; one chronic condition that does not progress), and complex chronic disease (n = 32) was used. Parents completed the Caregiver Burden Inventory and blood serum was collected to measure inflammation. Multivariate analyses of variance with post-hoc testing was used to determine between group differences. Parents of children with complex disease experienced greater caregiver burden than parents of typically developing children (p < 0.001) and non-complex chronic disease (p = 0.044). Parents of children with non-complex chronic disease reported greater caregiver burden than parents of typically developing children (p = 0.02). Parents of children with complex chronic disease had lower pro- (p = 0.042) and anti-inflammatory (p = 0.002) composite scores, than parents of typically developing children. Parents of children with greater medical complexity experienced more caregiver burden and potential inflammatory dysregulation. Future research should explore inflammatory processes in this specific population and self-care measures to improve psychological and physical well-being.