Parents caring for a child with spinal muscular atrophy Type 1 carry a heavy daily load, and a new study reports that this load is measurably linked to their anxiety. In a descriptive, cross-sectional, and correlational study published in BMC Nursing, researchers evaluated 100 parents of pediatric patients diagnosed with SMA Type 1 who were receiving treatment at a foundation university hospital’s pediatric department in Istanbul. Data were collected between August 2024 and May 2025 through in-person interviews, and the analysis showed a significant positive correlation between caregiving burden and both state and trait anxiety, with the association stronger for trait anxiety.
The study’s background notes that it is well-known that increased caregiving burden for parents raising a child with SMA can lead to psychological issues, and that investigating how caregiving burden is associated with anxiety is important for identifying parents’ psychosocial needs. The research team, Pelin Kolaç and Aysel Kokcu Dogan, set out to evaluate the relationship between caregiving burden and anxiety levels among parents of children diagnosed with SMA Type 1.
Participants completed three instruments: a Parental Demographic Information Form, the Zarit Caregiver Burden Scale, and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory. Because the design was cross-sectional, the data capture a single point in time for each parent and cannot establish that burden causes anxiety, only that the two move together.
The mean total scores were 49.03 ± 12.38 for caregiving burden, 42.97 ± 6.71 for state anxiety, and 44.05 ± 4.94 for trait anxiety. A positive and significant correlation emerged between caregiver burden and state anxiety scores (r = 0.224, p = 0.025), indicating a modest association. The correlation between caregiver burden and trait anxiety scores was moderate and significant (r = 0.328, p = 0.001).
The study also examined how burden differed across family circumstances. Care burden scores varied significantly depending on parental role, monthly income, and whether the marriage was between relatives (p < 0.05). No statistically significant differences were found in caregiving burden and anxiety levels based on other demographic characteristics (p > 0.05).
The coefficient of 0.328 for trait anxiety falls in the moderate range. The reported p-values indicate that these correlations are unlikely to be due to chance alone under the study’s assumptions, though statistical significance in a single cross-sectional sample does not settle questions of direction or causation.
The authors used SPSS Statistics version 22.0 to analyze the data.
The clinical trial number for the study is listed as not applicable, consistent with its observational design. The authors conclude that significant positive correlations were found between parents’ caregiving burden and their levels of state and trait anxiety, and that these results underscore the importance of developing social and psychosocial support programs for parents of pediatric patients with SMA Type 1.
What the design cannot answer is whether reducing caregiver burden would lower anxiety, whether anxious parents perceive their burden as heavier, or whether unmeasured factors drive both. For now, the data add to the evidence that the strain of caregiving and parental anxiety travel together in this population, reinforcing the case for psychosocial support as part of the care surrounding children with SMA Type 1.
Subject of Research: The relationship between caregiver burden and anxiety among parents of children with spinal muscular atrophy Type 1
Article Title: The impact of caregiver burden on the anxiety of parents of pediatric patients with SMA Type 1
Article References: Kolaç, P., & Dogan, A. K. (2026). The impact of caregiver burden on the anxiety of parents of pediatric patients with SMA Type 1. BMC Nursing. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12912-026-05587-8
Image Credits: AI Generated
DOI: 10.1186/s12912-026-05587-8
Keywords: spinal muscular atrophy, SMA Type 1, caregiver burden, anxiety, parents, cross-sectional study, Zarit Caregiver Burden Scale, State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, psychosocial support, pediatric nursing, Turkey, correlational research
Tags: AnxietyCaregiver Burdencorrelational researchCross-sectional StudyParentsPediatric nursingpsychosocial supportSMA Type 1spinal muscular atrophyState-Trait Anxiety InventoryTurkeyZarit Caregiver Burden Scale
