Factors Affecting Psychological and Health-Related Quality-of-Life Status in Children and Adolescents with Congenital Heart Diseases

Abstract

Congenital heart disease (CHD), a severe cardiac defect in children, has unclear influences on young patients. We aimed to find the impacts of differently structure heart defects and various treatments on psychology and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in CHD children and adolescents. CHD patients aged between 6 and 18 years old visited our hospital from 1 May 2018 to 31 September 2018, and their principal caregivers were asked to participate. We used two validated questionnaires, Children Depression Inventory-TW (CDI-TW) and Child Health Questionnaire—Parent Form 50 (CHQ-PF 50), to evaluate CHD patients’ psychological and HRQoL conditions. Participants were grouped based on their cardiac defects and previous treatments. We analyzed the results via summary independent-samples t-test with post hoc Bonferroni correction and multivariant analysis. Two hundred and seventy-seven children and their principal caregivers were involved. There was no apparent depressive condition in any group. Single cardiac defect patients exhibited similar HRQoL to controls; simultaneously, those with cyanotic heart disease (CyHD), most multiple/complex CHDs children and adolescents, and those who received invasive treatments had poorer HRQoL. CyHD impacted the most on patients’ psychological and HRQoL status. Patients with sole cardiac defect could live near-normal lifes; on the other hand, CyHD had the worst effects on patients’ psychology and HRQoL.

Resilience in children with congenital heart disease: a comparative study with health counterparts

“…Similar results were also reported on HrQoL in children with CHD. Specifically, children with cyanotic cardiac disease and complex diseases experienced poorer psychological well-being, which was associated with a higher number of hospital admissions and cardiac surgeries 23…”

Effects of transition programs to adulthood for adolescents and young adults with congenital heart disease: a systematic review with meta-analysis

“…The disease-related QoL in adolescents and adults with CHD is influenced by the complexity of the CHD, clinical symptoms, and complications, with only limited associations with demographic and socioeconomic factors. [52][53][54] Therefore, to enhance disease-related QoL in individuals with CHD, the focus should be on alleviating clinical symptoms and complications associated with CHD. A prior metaanalysis indicated an improvement in disease-related QoL when individuals with CHD participated in an exercise program lasting from 10 weeks to 3 months, which improved cardiac function and reduced the need for medication.…”

Discovery and functional investigation of BMP4 as a new causative gene for human congenital heart disease

“…As an array of cardiovascular developmental deformations, CHD is clinically categorized into > 30 distinct isoforms, encompassing double-outlet right ventricle (DORV) and ventricular septal defect (VSD) [2,[7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14]. Though certain mild/minor forms of CHD may resolve spontaneously [2], severe/complex forms of CHD usually lead to worse quality of life [15][16][17], reduced exercise performance [18][19][20][21], neurodevelopmental delay and structural brain anomaly [22][23][24][25][26], ischemic/thromboembolic stroke [27,28], acute renal injury/chronic kidney disease [29][30][31][32], hepatic fibrosis [33,34], pulmonary dysplasia/ pulmonary arterial hypertension [35][36][37], bacte-Am J Transl Res 2024;16 (5):2034-2048 rial endocarditis [38][39][40][41][42], chronic heart failure [43][44][45], supraventricular/ventricular arrhythmias [46][47]…”