Abstract

Objective: To Measure quality of life in adolescents after cardiac surgery

Design: Prospective analytical cohort study

Setting: Pediatric cardiology clinic of department of paediatrics of a tertiary level hospital

Participants: Study was carried out on 25 adolescents who were operated for different cardiac diseases at least 6 month before the time of study.

Main Outcome Measure(s): Quality of life of each individual was measured by using Pediatric Quality Of Life Inventory™ 3.0 Cardiac Module.

Results: As far as cardiac symptoms concerned mean quality of life score was 75.71 this suggest that all patients have improvement in their cardiac symptoms. As far as treatment compliance concerned mean quality of life score was 95.4 which represents that most of the patients were compliant to their treatment. Adolescents were very much concerned about their physical appearance this is reflected in the mean score of 85 in the field of perceived physical appearance concern about their physical appearance was more in early and mid-adolescent but acceptance was developed in late adolescent group. In respect to treatment anxiety mean quality of life score was 93.5 this signifies that patient did not have any anxiety when they are taken to health facilities. Almost 1/10^th of children had cognitive problem this cognitive problem increased with increase in age with lowest score in late adolescence. Children had low scores in the domain of communication with medical staff which is low in the late adolescent.

Conclusions Overall improved quality of life was observed in all children after heart surgery in all scales. But due to decreased score in the field of perceived physical appearance, cognitive difficulty and difficulty to communicate in the late adolescent these domains needs further evaluation.

Keywords: Quality of life, Pediatric cardiac surgery, Adolescent, Pediatric Quality Of Life Inventory™ 3.0 Cardiac Module, QoL