|
Dr Estella Alonso and colleagues investigated the distribution of health-related quality of life in pediatric liver transplant recipients compared with a normative population.
Patients between 2 and 18 years of age, surviving liver transplantation by at least 12 months, were eligible.
Parent/guardian fluency in English or Spanish was required.
Children 8 years and parents of all children completed the age-appropriate versions of the PedsQL 4.0.
Scores were compared with a sample of 3911 healthy children matched by age group, sex, and race/ethnicity and with a sample of pediatric patients with cancer receiving chemotherapy and/or radiation.
 |
| Patients reported better physical functioning than patients with cancer |
| Journal of Pediatrics |
Of these, the researchers identified 873 eligible patients.
Mean age was 8 years, and 55% were female.
The total and subscale scores of PedsQL 4.0 were lower than in healthy children, with effect sizes for self-report ranging from -0.25 for Emotional Functioning to -0.68 for School Functioning.
The team observed that patients and their parents reported better physical functioning than patients with cancer but similar social and school functioning.
The research team found that correlations between parent and self-reports were in the moderate agreement range.
Dr Alonso's team concluded, “Pediatric liver transplant recipients and their parents report lower health-related quality of life than control subjects with some domains equal to children receiving cancer therapy.”
| 
Email this page to a colleague
