The risk factors for negative emotions in parents of children with bacterian vulvovaginitis and its impact on prognosis: a retrospective cohort study

BACKGROUND: Vulvovaginitis is one of the most common pediatric gynecological diseases and easily causes the negative emotions for the parents. However, there are few studies on the influence of parental anxiety and depression on children’s disease and prognosis. This study aimed to analyze the risk factors of negative parental emotions and their effects on the prognosis of children, in order to improve life quality of children. METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed 303 pediatric patients who developed bacterian vulvovaginitis from April 2017 to April 2022 based on our inclusion and exclusion criteria. The Self-rating Depression Scale (SDS) and Self-rating Anxiety Scale (SAS) were used to assess the negative emotions and binary logistic regression was used to analyze the independent risk factors for negative emotions among the parents of children with vulvovaginitis. The relationship between the prognosis of children and parents’ negative emotions was analyzed by independent sample t-test, and the relationship between the recovery rate of children within 2 weeks, clearance rate of urine, and parents’ negative emotions was analyzed by chi-square test. RESULTS: In our study, 44.6% of the parents showed anxiety and 35.0% showed depression. The binary logistics regression of the clinical characteristics of the children showed that vulvar pruritus [odds ratio (OR) =1.664, P=0.048], increased vaginal secretions (OR =2.289, P=0.001), vulvar ulcerations (OR =1.831, P=0.024), and so on were independent influences on the anxiety of the parents, whereas vulvar pruritus (OR =2.722, P=0.000), increased vaginal secretions (OR =1.758, P=0.041), dysuria, frequent urination (OR =1.761, P=0.040), and so on were independent influences on depression among the parents. Besides, it was found that parental negative emotions significantly prolonged the improvement of the child’s prognosis. CONCLUSIONS: Parents of children with vulvovaginitis are highly susceptible to have negative emotions due to the various clinical features of the child. The negative emotions of the parents significantly prolong the recovery time of the child. In clinical practice, adequate communication should be established with the parents of patients, and detailed education should be carried out to reduce the psychological burden of patients’ parents, so as to improve the prognosis of children.