ORIGINAL ARTICLE Social, Psychological and Financial Burden on Caregivers of Children with Chronic Illness: A Cross-sectional Study Ankush K. Khanna 1 & Anusha Prabhakaran 2 & Priyanka Patel 2 & Jaishree D. Ganjiwale 3 & Somashekhar M. Nimbalkar 1,3 Received: 14 January 2015 /Accepted: 1 April 2015 # Dr. K C Chaudhuri Foundation 2015 Abstract Objectives To explore social, psychological and financial bur- den on caregivers of chronically diseased children. Methods Participants were recruited from ambulatory and hospital areas in pediatrics department following informed consent. Parents who were caregivers of children 18y or be- low in age with chronic illness were included. Socio- demographic details were collected using a semi structured questionnaire, adapted from Family Burden Interview Sched- ule (FBIS). The psychological well-being of caregivers was assessed using Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) and Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7). Descriptive analysis and ANOVA was done for comparing mean scores of re- sponses to analyze financial, psychological and social burden across different diagnosis. Results A total of 204 (89 females:115 males) participated. Only 27% were receiving some benefits from government or hospital side. No depressive symptoms were reported by 25% caregivers, while 37% reported mild and 38% moderate to severe depressive symptoms. No anxiety symptoms were re- ported by 33%, while 50% reported mild and 17% moderate to severe anxiety symptoms. No association was seen between gender of the caregiver and depressive or anxiety symptoms. Significantly higher financial and social burden was seen in cerebral palsy and cancer groups vis-a-vis other dis- eases, being least in thalassemia. Disruption of routine life was highest in cancer group caregivers followed by those in cerebral palsy group. Conclusions Most caregivers reported moderate depressive symptoms and mild to moderate anxiety symptoms. Cerebral palsy caused more social and financial burden on family vis-a- vis thalassemia. Social and financial burden on families of remaining diseases was comparable. Keywords Chronic diseases . Caregiver . Financial burden . Depression . Anxiety Introduction Chronic illness is defined as a condition that either interferes, or is likely to interfere with an individual’ s daily functioning for at least three months of a year, or a condition that will require hospitalization for more than one month in a year [1]. Chronic illnesses seen in pediatric and adolescent popu- lation include conditions like anemia, cerebral palsy, thal- assemia, epilepsy, chronic renal diseases, diabetes mellitus, chronic respiratory diseases, hemophilia, neu- romuscular disease, cancers etc.[2–5]. Stress is a non-specific response of the body to any exces- sive environmental request [6]. Family with a child who is suffering from chronic illness suffer a significant burden of care, increasing the demands and reorganization of roles [7]. In addition, each parent’ s perception of their psychosocial situation, as well as their reaction to it, may affect the par- ent–child relationship and the child’ s functioning. Parents ap- pear to need better support structures to help them cope with the difficulties encountered during all stages of their child's illness [8, 9]. * Somashekhar M. Nimbalkar somu_somu@yahoo.com 1 Department of Pediatrics, Pramukhswami Medical College, Karamsad, Anand, Gujarat 388325, India 2 Department of Psychiatry, Pramukhswami Medical College, Karamsad, Gujarat, India 3 Central Research Services, Charutar Arogya Mandal, Karamsad, Gujarat, India Indian J Pediatr DOI 10.1007/s12098-015-1762-y