Quality of life in Arab children with congenital heart disease

Abstract

Background and purpose Management strategies for children with congenital health diseases (CHDs) should encompass more than just the medical aspect of the disease and consider how heart diseases affect their everyday activities and, subsequently, their quality of life (QoL). Global studies witnessed a greater emphasis on studying the QoL associated with CHD. However, there is still a great lag in such data in the Arab region. The purpose of this study was to evaluate QoL in children with CHD using an Arab sample from Jordan. The specific objectives were twofold: (1) to contrast the assessments of children’s QoL reported by their parents with those reported by the children themselves, and (2) to assess the factors that influence the QoL of children with CHD. Methods A total of 79 children aged 2–18 with a confirmed diagnosis of CHD were included in the study, along with their mothers. Of them, 38.0% were girls, 67.1% were diagnosed with non-cyanotic CHD, 58.2% had a severe CHD, 92.4% had undergone at least one operation, 81.0% had repaired defects, 13.9% underwent palliated procedures, and 24.1% were admitted to a neonatal intensive care unit after delivery. The Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory was used to assess QoL of children with CHD. Both children’s and parents’ reports of QoL were analyzed using paired-sample t-tests, ANOVAs, and multiple linear regression. Results Older children reported significantly lower QoL scores, whereas there were no differences in parents-reported QoL scores across different children age groups. There was a divergence in perceptions of QoL between parents-reported and children-reported scores with parents reporting significantly lower scores. The children-reported QoL in this study seemed to be significantly associated with their gender, age, and the presence of learning difficulties, whereas the parent-reported QoL was only associated with the presence of learning difficulties. Conclusions Responses from both children and parents need to be considered to understand the similarities and differences between them and to provide further insight into the optimal way to help children with CHD effectively navigate the transition into adulthood. Future research studies of outcomes for survivors of children with CHD are needed to identify high-risk survivors for worse psychosocial functioning and assess prevention measures and treatment interventions to improve their QoL.

Beyond the heart: Cognitive and verbal outcomes in Arab children with congenital heart diseases

“…The QoL scores were derived based on the PedsQL measure's scoring manual (Varni et al, 2003). Details on the scoring process as well as the Arab translation of the measure are available elsewhere (Dardas et al, 2024).…”

“…Of the total 79 children who participated in the parent study (Dardas et al, 2024), 62 were eligible to fill in the standardized intelligence test. The sample under consideration consisted of 62 children with CHD (64.5% males) aged between 6 and 16 years.…”

“…In our previous investigation (Dardas et al, 2024), we embarked on a comprehensive evaluation of the QoL in children suffering from CHDs within an Arab sample in Jordan. This foundational study aimed to understand the multi-dimensional impacts of CHDs on affected children by contrasting QoL assessments reported by the children themselves with those reported by their parents, and examining factors influencing these QoL outcomes.…”