Research conducted by a University of Limerick academic, has found that parents of children with developmental disabilities have higher blood pressure than parents of normally developing children.

Dr Stephen Gallagher, Department of Psychology, UL and Jenny Whitley from Staffordshire University wanted to see if the challenges associated with caring for a child with a developmental disability would have a negative effect on their parents’ cardiovascular functioning.

Dr Gallagher said; “We found these parents, who were mostly caring for children with autism and Down’s syndrome, were more stressed and had less social support had higher blood pressure than other parents.  More importantly it was reporting of lower social support that seemed to explain the higher blood pressure in these caring parents.”
 
This study showed that providing care to a child with a developmental disability can often be very challenging, and when parents lack social support it is their blood pressure that can be affected in a way that could put them at risk of future cardiovascular health.

Dr Gallagher says “Although, our results help to raise awareness of the challenges faced by parents caring for a child with a developmental disability, they also indicate that further study is needed in this area.  Our group is continuing this line of research and we would be very interested in hearing from anyone who is caring for a sick or disabled relative and would be willing to participate in any of these research studies.” Those potentially interested in participating should contact Dr Stephen Gallagher, Department of Psychology, University of Limerick, by e-mail: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

The study, ‘Social support is associated with blood pressure responses in parents caring for children with developmental disabilities.’ By Gallagher S, Whiteley J. is available online here: