Work

1183 Health-related quality of life, personality and psychological maladjustment, emotional and behavioural problems, and family impact in children with nephrotic syndrome

Year: 2022

Type: conference-paper

Abstract: Aims Nephrotic Syndrome (NS) is the commonest chronic glomerular disease of childhood. A majority (70–80%) have relapsing disease persisting throughout childhood causing a significant psychosocial impact on both children and their families. Objectives of this study were to assess the quality of life (QOL), personality and psychological maladjustment, emotional and behavioural problems, and family impact in children with NS compared to a matched healthy control group. Methods A case-control study was conducted in the nephrology clinic, Lady Ridgeway Hospital for Children, Colombo, Sri Lanka. Personality and psychological maladjustments were assessed using the Personality Assessment Questionnaire. The Child Behavior Checklist and Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire were used to assess the emotional and behavioural problems and psychological symptoms, respectively. The family impact was quantified using the Impact on Family questionnaire. The centre for epidemiological studies depression (CESD) scale was used for the assessment of depressive symptoms of mothers. The quality of life of children was assessed using the Health-Related Quality of Life questionnaire. Data were analysed using the R language for statistical computing. Results The nephrotic syndrome (NS) group and the control group contained 151 (age 6.7 ±4.03 years) and 125 (age 7.95 ±4.31 years) subjects respectively. A statistically significant difference of the means was found between the control and NS groups for personality assessment (p<0.05), psychological problems score (p<0.001), family impact (p<0.001), depressive symptoms of mothers (p<0.001) and health-related quality of life (p<0.001). The score for the strengths and difficulties significantly correlated with all the other 5 test scores. Strong positive correlations were observed between the family impact and the depressive symptoms scores of mothers (r = 0.66, p-value < 0.001), family impact and child behavioral checklist scores (r = 0.58, p-value < 0.001) and strengths and difficulties and child behavior checklist (r = 0.55, p-value < 0.001). Conclusion Nephrotic syndrome had a significant psychosocial and behavioural impact on the child as well as the family. Care should be taken to address these issues when treating nephrotic syndrome in children.

DOI: 10.1136/archdischild-2022-rcpch.160