Health related quality of life of children with chronic liver diseases

Introduction Chronic liver disease encompasses a wide spectrum of disorders, including infectious, metabolic, genetic, druginduced, idiopathic, structural, and autoimmune diseases. The clinical presentation and initial laboratory data in many of these diseases are similar, and a definitive diagnosis often relies on specialized laboratory investigation and histologic examinationof liver tissue. End-stage liver disease in children presents a challenging array of medical and psychosocial problems for the health care delivery team. Health-related quality of life (HRQOL) is a marker of disease severity.Influence of the liver disease, active medical and psychiatric comorbidities, and socio-demographic variables in the determination of health-related quality of life (HRQOL) measured by a generic and a liver-specific instrument in unselected patients with chronic liver disease revealed that Psychiatric comorbidity and active medical comorbidity, and not severity of the liver disease according to Child-Pugh score,determine reduced HRQOL in patients with chronic liver diseases (Häuser et al., 2004). Aim The aim of this study was to assess the influence of chronic liver discease on health-related quality of life (HRQL) of the patients. Methods This study was conducted on 32 children with chronic liver disease (17 males ; 15 females) with ages ranging from 6-14 years, following up at the Pediatric Hepatology Clinic,The Children`s Hospital, Ain Shams university. Cohorts of 15 apparently healthy children (8 males; 7 females) with ages ranging from 5-14 years were also studied as a control group. All children included in the study were subjected to thorough clinical history and examination and Assessment of Pediatric Quality of Life using PedsQLTM Inventory both Child Self Report and Parent Proxy Report.The PedsQLTM scales comprised of parallel child selfreport and parent-proxy formats. Results Statistical comparison between studied groups as regards Health Related Quality of Life assessment among parents shows that the parents` perception of qualityof life total summary score as well as physical, emotional, and school sub-scores were significantly lower among parents of CLD children compared to controls and also showed that the child perception of quality of life total summary score as well as physical, and school subscores were significantly lower among CLD children compared to controls.