A historical comparison of long-term behavioral and emotional outcomes in children and adolescents after invasive treatment for congenital heart disease.
OBJECTIVE
Children with congenital heart disease (ConHD) are known to be vulnerable to behavioral and emotional problems. In this study, a historical comparison is made between the level of behavioral and emotional problems in a sample of children and adolescents with ConHD treated recently vs a comparable historical sample operated upon before 1980 in the same institute. The hypothesis was that improvements in medical care would result in more favorable behavioral and emotional outcomes for children and adolescents with ConHD treated recently, that is, between 1990 and 1995, compared with same-aged patients operated on before 1980.


METHODS
To assess behavioral and emotional problems, the Child Behavior Checklist (parent report) and Youth Self-Report were used. The historical samples (n = 98 and n = 123, respectively) and recent samples (n = 90 and n = 84, respectively) consisted of 4 diagnostic groups.


RESULTS
Parents and patients from the recent sample with ConHD reported fairly similar levels of behavioral and emotional problems compared with parents and patients in the historical sample with ConHD.


CONCLUSIONS
Despite evident improvements in diagnostic and surgical techniques and medical treatment of ConHD over the past decades, virtually no changes were found in levels of problem behavior of the recent patient sample compared with the historical patient sample, who both underwent invasive treatment for ConHD.
Spijkerboer
Alinda W
AW
Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Erasmus Medical Centre, CB 3000 Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
Utens
Elisabeth M W J
EM
Bogers
Ad J J C
AJ
Helbing
Willem A
WA
Verhulst
Frank C
FC
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000293:Adolescent; D017677:Age Distribution; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D006348:Cardiac Surgical Procedures / Q000379:methods / Q000523:psychology*; D002648:Child; D002653:Child Behavior Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology*; D015331:Cohort Studies; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006330:Heart Defects, Congenital / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology* / Q000601:surgery*; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008297:Male; D010552:Personality Assessment; D011336:Probability; D011379:Prognosis; D011594:Psychometrics; D011788:Quality of Life; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D017678:Sex Distribution; D018434:Sickness Impact Profile; D012917:Social Adjustment