Assessment of Quality of Life among Children with End-Stage Renal Disease: A Cross-Sectional Study

BACKGROUND: Measuring health-related quality of life is considered an important outcome indicator in evaluating health-care interventions and treatments and in understanding the burden of diseases. OBJECTIVES: This study aimed at assessing quality of life among children with end-stage renal disease, either undergoing hemodialysis or had renal transplantation therapy and comparing it with healthy controls. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted between December 2016 and May 2017 in Abo El-Reesh Pediatric Hospital using parent/child reports of generic module for QoL assessment: PedsQL(TM) Inventory version 4 for both cases and controls. Disease-specific module: PedsQL(TM) ESRD version 3 was used for ESRD cases. 55 ESRD cases and 86 controls were enrolled in the study. RESULTS: Statistically significant difference between ESRD cases and controls regarding all aspects of QoL was found; total QoL mean score was 58.4 ± 15.3 and 86.8 ± 10 among cases and controls, respectively. All individual QoL domains were significantly worse in ESRD cases. Transplantation group had better Spearman's correlation between child and parents' scores which showed significant positive moderate correlation. CONCLUSIONS: ESRD and its treatment modalities are affecting negatively all aspects of quality of life; incorporating QoL assessment and management is highly recommended.