Abstract
A poll of chronic MCLS children and their mothers was conducted by the authors. Of 113 mothers questional, 75.3% answered the questionaire. We describe anxiety and life style of the mothers and children. The main findings were:
1) A total of 89.4% of the mothers worried about their children. The main worries were: relapse 62.8% ; aneurysm, 59.3%; deficiency in sports, 26.5%.
2) There were 7 characteristics common to children, and mothers who worried a lot about them. The children a) went to the hospital frequently, b) took medicine. The mothers c) hoped that long term follow-up for MCLS could be conducted periodically, d) asked many people to help them deal with their child's disease, e) had some other family members to help with the care, f) felt that their daily lives were more stressful than those of other women of the same age, g) had more complaints of mental and physical condition.
3) Although all mothers were evaluated by the catell anxiety scales, only 6.2% received counselling.
4) 28.3% of the mothers restricted the daily activity of their children. Main subjects of restriction were vaccination (12.4%), playing sports (10.6%), and sitting up late at night (10.6%) .
