Health-Related Quality of Life Assessment in Children Followed in a Cardiomyopathy Clinic

Melanie R. Friess, Bradley S. Marino, Amy Cassedy, Ivan Wilmot, John L. Jefferies, Angela Lorts*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

14 Scopus citations

Abstract

As our ability to diagnosis cardiomyopathy matures and genetic testing becomes more widespread, there has been an increase in the number of children followed for cardiomyopathy. The purpose of this study was to compare health-related quality of life (HRQoL) between children with cardiomyopathy and healthy controls and with children seen in clinic who are at risk for the development of cardiomyopathy. Patient and parent-proxy perspectives were obtained using the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory (PedsQLTM) 4.0 Core Scales (ages 2–18 years) and the disease-specific Cardiac Module. Cardiomyopathy physicians’ perceptions of the impact of cardiomyopathy on the functional status of the patients were collected. In addition, data regarding disease-specific medical and socioeconomic information were collected from chart review and parental report. The questionnaires were completed by 100 parent-proxies and 71 children. The PedsQLTM scores reported by children and their parent-proxies were compared to scores reported by pediatric norms. Compared to healthy controls, patients followed in a pediatric cardiomyopathy clinic scored lower in Total score when compared to pediatric norms (80.7 vs 86.4, p = 0.002). Interestingly, children with a family history of cardiomyopathy who are at risk for developing the disease scored similar to those children with a diagnosis of cardiomyopathy. Parental and patients perceptions were discrepant when compared, which may deter appropriate referral to behavioral health services. These results should encourage cardiomyopathy clinics to screen all patients for HRQoL impairments and to have behavioral services available to assist these children.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)516-523
Number of pages8
JournalPediatric cardiology
Volume36
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - Feb 20 2015

Keywords

  • Family history
  • Genetic
  • Pediatric

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Pediatrics, Perinatology, and Child Health
  • Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine

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