Abstract
BackgroundChildren with a clinical diagnosis of calcaneal apophysitis reportedly experience impaired physical ability. Patient reported outcome assessments measure the level of conditional specific interference in everyday life. The aim of this study was to assess and compare the child and parent perceptions of health related quality of life (QOL) associated with calcaneal apophysitis.MethodsThis is a longitudinal repeated measure study nested within a randomized comparative effectiveness trial. Children who had symptoms of calcaneal apophysitis were recruited from local advertising and from the caseload of podiatrists within the health setting (Australia). The Oxford Ankle Foot Questionnaire for Children (OxAFQ-C) was completed at baseline, 1, 2, 6 and 12 month time points by both child and parent.ResultsA total of 133 children were recruited and 124 participated in the study with 101 completing the OxAFQ-C at all five time points. The inter-rater reliability between the child and parent for the physical domain ranged between poor (0.06) to good (0.77) agreement, and the footwear domain ranged between poor (0.09) to good (0.66) across the time points. Both the school and emotional domains had moderate (0.46) to good (0.77) agreement.ConclusionChildren with calcaneal apophysitis have differing perceptions of health related QOL impact compared to their parents. Parents initially reported greater impact than their child however there was convergence of agreement over the follow-up period. These findings suggest understanding the impact from both child and parent perspective is imperative during treatment.Trial registrationTrial Number: ACTRN12609000696291.
Highlights
Children with a clinical diagnosis of calcaneal apophysitis reportedly experience impaired physical ability
The agreement within the footwear domain was noted to fluctuate over the 12 month period with the lowest level of agreement seen at the 2-month time point (0.09)
This study demonstrated that the children with calcaneal apophysitis within this trial reported substantially different health related quality of life (QOL) impact than their parents when using the Oxford Ankle Foot Questionnaire for Children (OxAFQ-C)
Summary
Children with a clinical diagnosis of calcaneal apophysitis reportedly experience impaired physical ability. Calcaneal apophysitis (Sever’s Disease) is a condition causing pain at the posterior aspect of the heel. It may present in children between the ages of 8 to 15 years [1, 2] when the apophysis of the heel is open [3, 4]. Calcaneal apophysitis is diagnosed in the absence of an injury or inflammatory medical condition and with the presentation of pain on medial and lateral compression at the posterior aspect of the heel) [8]. Children have reported physical, social and school impacts of calcaneal apophysitis [9] yet little is know about how parents perceive the impact of pain
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