The impact of stroke on the quality of life of children and adolescents

ABSTRACT The aim of this study was to evaluate the quality of life (QoL) of children/adolescents with a diagnosis of stroke (CVA) in the eyes of the person responsible and the children / adolescents themselves compared to a control group. 78 subjects were divided into: Group of children / adolescents who had a history of stroke (GAVC, n = 39) and a group of healthy children/adolescents as Control (CG, n = 39) matched by gender and age. A semi-structured interview was used to describe the sociodemographic aspects and the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory (PedsQLTM 4.0) to evaluate the QoL of the subjects in their development. The median age of the diagnosis of stroke was 7 months, with the majority presenting ischemic stroke (71.8%) and hemiparesis.According to those responsible for the GAVC, the Functional Capacity of their children was significantly different, presenting inferiority in relation to the CG. Also, for those in charge, the father’s educational variable maintained a significant positive effect on the emotional aspects of the child, and the variable age of the child /adolescent and stroke time> 29 days of life had a negative effect on the school aspects. As for the children / adolescents, the variable age that entered school and gender had a significant negative effect on the outcome of school aspects in relation to the CG. We conclude that the view of those responsible differs from the child/adolescent’s view of their functional capacity; the father’s schooling positively influenced the emotional aspects of the child and the children feel a loss in school performance, especially the boys.

摘要 本研究旨在从照料者以及儿童/青少年自身的视角，对比经确诊为脑卒中（CVA）的儿童/青少年与对照组的生活质量（QoL）。78名研究对象被分为两组：有脑卒中病史的儿童/青少年组（GAVC，n=39），以及按性别与年龄匹配的健康儿童/青少年对照组（CG，n=39）。研究采用半结构化访谈收集研究对象的社会人口学特征信息，并采用儿童生活质量量表（PedsQL™ 4.0）评估其发育阶段的生活质量。脑卒中确诊的中位年龄为7个月，多数患者为缺血性脑卒中（71.8%），且伴有偏瘫症状。据GAVC组的照料者反馈，其子女的功能能力与对照组存在显著差异，表现为较对照组更差。此外，照料者视角下，父亲的受教育程度对儿童的情绪维度存在显著正向影响；而儿童/青少年的入学年龄以及脑卒中发病距出生时间超过29天的变量，则对学业维度存在负向影响。而从儿童/青少年自身视角来看，入学年龄与性别变量相较于对照组，对其学业维度的评估结果存在显著负向影响。本研究结论表明，照料者与儿童/青少年自身对其功能能力的认知存在差异；父亲的受教育程度对儿童的情绪维度存在正向影响，且儿童自身认为其学业表现有所下滑，这一情况在男性群体中尤为显著。