title: Children's and adolescents' understanding of their small ventricular septal defects.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Congenital heart disease is common yet poorly understood in childhood. We reviewed the understanding of older children and adolescents with the commonest congenital heart defect, namely, a small ventricular septal defect (VSD), through a questionnaire and/or their drawings of their abnormality.
  
  
  METHODS
  As part of a wider study, older children and adolescents with a small VSD were asked to draw a picture of their cardiac defect in addition to completing a questionnaire.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Twelve of an initial cohort of 20 participants, who were between the ages of 8 and 20 years, completed a drawing of their malformation. Further drawings were obtained from five additional participants recruited from a private practice over the next few years. There were almost equal number of male and female participants overall. Nearly all participants had a limited understanding of their cardiac abnormality as reflected by their drawings. Nevertheless none reported restricting their physical activity.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  While most older children and adolescents did not seem to have a clear understanding of their small VSD, it did not appear to affect their daily activity. The participants placed a greater reliance on the information provided by their parents rather than their doctor, emphasizing the importance of informing both the parents and the patient.
authors.affiliation: Department of Paediatric Cardiology, Royal Children's Hospital, Monash Medical Centre, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
authors.forename: Sheau Wen
authors.initials: SW
authors.lastname: Lok
authors.forename: Samuel
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Menahem
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D004452:Echocardiography; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006345:Heart Septal Defects, Ventricular / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010353:Patient Education as Topic / Q000379:methods*; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult