Article: Quality of life and self-esteem in children treated for idiopathic short stature.

This scientific article presents a study about changes in health related quality of life (HRQoL) and self-esteem in children with idiopathic short stature (ISS).

Theunissen, N.C.M., Kamp, G., Koopman, H.M., Zwinderman, A.H., Vogels, A.G.C., & Wit, J.M. (2002). Quality of life and self-esteem in children treated for idiopathic short stature. Journal of Pediatrics, 140(5),507-515. https://doi.org/10.1067/mpd.2002.123766

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Abstract

Objective: Changes in Health Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) and self-esteem were studied in children with idiopathic short stature (ISS) participating in a study on the effect of Growth Hormone (GH) treatment.
Study design: Thirty-six prepubertal children with ISS were randomly assigned to a treatment or control group. Children with ISS, their parents and the pediatrician completed HRQoL and self-esteem questionnaires three times in two years. Results: At start, children with ISS did not have lower scores than the norm population, except for social functioning HRQoL. The pediatrician reported an improvement of HRQoL in the treatment group, the parents reported no change, and the children in the treatment group reported the same or sometimes even worse HRQoL or self-esteem than the control group. Changes related to the child’s satisfaction with height, and hardly to growth itself. Conclusion: The assumption that GH treatment improves HRQoL in children with ISS could not be supported in this study.

Keywords

health related quality of life, health status, self-esteem, idiopathic short stature, growth hormone treatment.

Topic: Health Psychology publications
Code: 1274