title: Health related quality of life and social support in pediatric patients with pacemakers.
abstract: Prior research evaluating health-related quality of life (HRQOL) among pediatric patients with internal cardiac devices has primarily focused on children with cardiac defibrillators, with scant attention devoted to pacemaker recipients. Social support has been conceptualized as a protective factor that partially accounts for differences in HRQOL. This study compares the HRQOL of children with pacemakers with that of healthy children, and examines associations between HRQOL and social support. Twenty-seven pediatric pacemaker recipients completed measures of HRQOL and social support. Their parents also completed measures of child HRQOL. High concordance was found for child and parent-proxy reports of child HRQOL. Children with pacemakers and their parents both reported relatively low child HRQOL when compared to published normative data for healthy children and parents of healthy children. Family and friends emerged as the sources of support positively associated with the greatest number of HRQOL domains. In conclusion, these findings suggest that pediatric pacemaker recipients experience lower levels of HRQOL compared to healthy peers, and that social support from those closest to the child is associated with their perceived HRQOL.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, USA.
authors.forename: Patricia
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.forename: Ana M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Gutierrez-Colina
authors.forename: Kristin A
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Loiselle
authors.forename: Margaret
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Strieper
authors.forename: Patrick
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Frias
authors.forename: Kevin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Gooden
authors.forename: Ronald L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Blount
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001294:Attitude to Health; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010138:Pacemaker, Artificial / Q000523:psychology*; D010290:Parents; D010372:Pediatrics; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology*; D012944:Social Support; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires