Psychosocial assessment and quality of life assessment in children with congenital heart in a developing country

Abstract

Abstract Background Few studies have examined the clinical utility of a brief psychosocial screening questionnaire and assessing the health-related quality of life as part of routine care in a pediatric cardiology clinic. Subject and methods A cross-sectional study was conducted over 6 months duration involving 224 patients with congenital heart diseases (CHD) aged 4–18 years and their parents to fulfill Pediatric Symptom Checklist (PSC) and Health related – Quality Of Life (HR-QOL) score. Statistical analysis of reliability of these scores among the studied population was carried using Cronbach’s alpha value. Results The studied population with CHD, aged 4–18 years with a mean ± standard deviation of 99.48 ± 43.37 months. They were 54.5% males (n = 122) and 45.5% females (n = 102). Internalizing problems were identified by PSC in 12.95% of patients (n = 29), Cyanosis was found to be the only significant independent risk factor for developing internalizing defects (p < 0.001). Quality of school functioning was the most affected domain in HR-QOL. While, the quality of social functioning remained good in the majority of cases. Cronbach’s alpha value coefficient of PSC and HR-QOL scores were 0.846 and 0.900 respectively, reflecting good to excellent reliability of these scores within the studied population. Conclusions Children with CHD have increased need for psychosocial assessment for improvement of their quality of life.

Keywords

• Psychosocial assessment
• PSC
• Quality of life
• Congenital heart diseases