Health-related quality of life of school-age children with familial Mediterranean fever
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Objectives. To describe and compare the parent proxy-reported and child self-reported physical and psychosocial HRQOL of school-age children who have FMF with healthy peers. Methods. The Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory 4.0 (PedsQL4.0) Generic Core Scales was used to measure HR-QOL. Fifty-one patients and 81 healthy peers were enrolled in the study. Patients were grouped according to their ages as: 1) Children (8 - 12 years) and 2) Adolescents (13 - 18 years). An accompanying parent completed the parent proxy-report of the PedsQL 4.0. Results. PedsQL scores of children (8-12 years) with FMF were significantly lower than healthy peers for physical and psychosocial functioning for both child self-report and parent proxy-report. The parent proxy-report and child self-reported PedsQL scores of adolescent patients (13-18 years) with FMF were lower than the healthy group for physical, emotional, and school functioning; however no significant difference was detected regarding the social functioning. Adolescents with FMF had significantly higher social functioning scores when compared to the younger age group (8-12 years) with FMF, 92.68.5 and 82.217.6, respectively (p=0.028). The scores of physical, emotional, and school functioning were similar in both groups (p=0.73, p=0.93, and p=0.91, respectively). Correlations among child self-report subscales and proxy-report subscales were all significant and varied from moderate to high. Conclusion. This study suggested that assessment of HRQOL has potential clinical implications for the healthcare needs of children and adolescents with FMF. Given the degree of reported impairment in their health-related quality of life, individualized counseling and interventions are needed. Copyright Clinical and Experimental Rheumatology 2009.
