Quality of Life in Children and Adolescents with Growth Hormone Deficiency: Association with Growth Hormone Treatment

Abstract

Background: Quality of life (QoL) as it is related with growth hormone deficiency (GHD) is a matter of controversy. Methods: We analyzed QoL in 95 children aged 8–18 years with isolated GHD (72% male) treated with growth hormone (GH). These children were compared to 190 age- and gender-matched healthy children with similar height [height <10th percentile; control group 1 (CG1)] and age- and gender-matched 285 healthy children of normal stature (control group 2: CG2). QoL was measured by the KINDL® questionnaire referring to six domains (physical well-being, emotional well-being, self-esteem, family, friends, and school). Results: QoL was significantly reduced in CG1 (effect-size 0.21) compared to CG2, while QoL was not significantly altered in children with GHD. In multiple linear regression analyses adjusted to age, gender, BMI, migration background, and socioeconomic status, decreasing height-SDS was associated with poorer QoL (especially emotional well-being), and treatment with GH was related significantly to better self-esteem. Increase of height-SDS in children treated with GH was associated positively with QoL and all its subscales except family and school. Conclusions: These findings suggest psychological consequences of short stature in children and an improvement of QoL in children treated with GH with the focus on self-esteem and emotional well-being.

Treatment of pituitary dwarfism in children and teenagers in the Stavropol territory

“…Проанализированы результаты терапии 38 (33 мальчиков и 5 девочек) пациентов в возрасте [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16] лет, получавших препараты рГР в краевом эндокри- Проведен анализ клинико-антропометрических показателей 38 детей и подростков с гипофизарным нанизмом в Ставро-польском крае, получающих заместительную терапию препаратами рекомбинантного гормона роста (рГР). Продемон-стрирована высокая ростостимулирующая эффективность препаратов рГР, а также их позитивное влияние на уровень холестерина крови у детей с соматотропной недостаточностью.…”

“…Проблема задержки роста у детей и подростков имеет большую медико-социальную значимость [10][11][12].…”

Short Stature in Childhood — Challenges and Choices

“…20 While a child may be teased or feel sad about being short, comparisons of non-GHD short children to taller peers 21,22 or psychosocial assessment of short adults 23 indicate that psychological stress can be 22 but is not predictably 21 related to stature. Further, increases in growth rate and height resulting from androgen 24 or hGH treatment (including one single double-blind, placebo-controlled trial) 25 have not predictably improved psychosocial well-being, even when the surrogate measure of final height is increased.…”

Quality of Life in Adolescent Boys with Idiopathic Short Stature: Positive Impact of Growth Hormone and Aromatase Inhibitors

“…This outcome is especially important in short stature, where an improvement in QoL is one of the reasons for treatment [2-5]. Research on QoL in pediatric growth disorders developed relatively recently, due in part to the lack of condition-specific measures to quantify the subjective perspective of patients and parents [6].…”

“…Parents seek treatment for their children because they are concerned about their child’s actual height and future adult height, as well as related psychological effects [9]. Studies suggest that height improvement is often accompanied by QoL improvement, but results are inconsistent [5, 24-27], especially in children diagnosed with ISS [9, 28]. Some studies have shown that there is a slight, but indirect, relationship between improvements in height and QoL [29-31].…”