Original scientific paper
Quality of Life in Children after Cardiac Surgery for Congenital Heart Disease
Elnur Tahirović
Hidajeta Begić
Husref Tahirović
James W. Varni
Abstract
The aim of this study was to assess the quality of life children after cardiac surgery for congenital heart disease
(CHD) and to compare these results with healthy children. To assess the quality of life children after surgery for CHD we
performed a cross-sectional study of 114 patients who were patients at the Department of Paediatrics in Tuzla, between
the ages of 2 and 18 years, of both sexes, and with one of their parents. We used the »PedsQL™ 4.0 Generic Core Scales«,
with both child self-report and parent proxy-reports. By self assessment, the PedsQL total scores for quality of life were
statistically significantly different between children after cardiac surgery for ages 13 to 18 years and healthy children,
while by parent report PedsQL total scores were statistically significantly different between children after cardiac surgery
for ages 5 to 7 years and healthy children. By self assessment, children after cardiac surgery for ages from 5 to 7 and
13 to 18 years reported that they have a statistically significantly lower quality of life in the segment school functioning
compared to the healthy children. By parental assessment, children after cardiac surgery for ages 2 to 4, 5 to 7 and 8 to 12
years have a statistically significantly lower quality of life in the segments of physical and psychosocial health, emotional,
social and school functioning. The results of our study indicate that children after cardiac surgery for CHD by
self and parent assessment have a lower quality of life than healthy children.
Keywords
quality of life; congenital heart disease; cardiac surgery; PedsQL™
Hrčak ID:
75659
URI
Publication date:
30.12.2011.
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