LAUSR.org creates dashboard-style pages of related content for over 1.5 million academic articles. Sign Up to like articles & get recommendations!

Factors associated with quality of life in children receiving pediatric palliative care.

Photo from wikipedia

CONTEXT Since pediatric palliative care (PPC) aims to improve the health-related quality of life (HRQoL) of children with life-limiting conditions (LLC), assessment of their HRQoL and identification of its determinants… Click to show full abstract

CONTEXT Since pediatric palliative care (PPC) aims to improve the health-related quality of life (HRQoL) of children with life-limiting conditions (LLC), assessment of their HRQoL and identification of its determinants is crucial. OBJECTIVES To examine the clinical and family factors associated with HRQoL of children with LLC METHODS: This was a cross-sectional study of 136 pediatric patients with LLC who were enrolled in the PPC services at Seoul National University Hospital in South Korea. Patients' HRQoL was measured using the Pediatric Quality of Life 4.0. Clinical and family characteristics were gathered from the medical records and PPC registry database. RESULTS Most children with LLC have a poor HRQoL at their enrollment for PPC services with significant variation in their total HRQoL scores according to the diagnostic categories. Patients with nonmalignant conditions showed significantly lower HRQoL scores than patients with malignancy. Lower HRQoL scores were associated with more caregiver depressive symptoms. In a multivariable regression model, total HRQoL scores of patients were significantly associated with diagnostic categories and caregiver's depressive symptoms after controlling for other clinical and family variables. Physical health summary scores were significantly associated with diagnostic categories and caregiver depressive symptoms. Psychosocial health summary scores were significantly associated with patient location and caregiver's depressive symptoms. CONCLUSION The HRQoL of children with LLC receiving PPC differed among underlying disease categories. Lower HRQoL was associated with more caregiver depressive symptoms. These findings suggest the needs for optimized intervention in palliative care for children with nonmalignant conditions and family-centered intervention to address caregivers' psychosocial problems.

Keywords: depressive symptoms; palliative care; hrqol; caregiver depressive; quality life; life

Journal Title: Journal of pain and symptom management
Year Published: 2021

Link to full text (if available)


Share on Social Media:                               Sign Up to like & get
recommendations!

Related content

More Information              News              Social Media              Video              Recommended



                Click one of the above tabs to view related content.