Health-related Quality of Life in Children and Adolescents with Graves’ Disease

Abstract

Background: Graves’ disease is the most common cause of hyperthyroidism in children. In adults, it influences physical and mental health as well as health-related quality of life (QoL) of the patients. However, study of QoL in children has been limited. Objective: To measure QoL in children with Graves’ disease by means of the PedsQL™ and EQ-5D-Y by using Thai version questionnaires. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study examined 21 Graves’ disease patients with the mean age 13.6 ± 3.1 years. All of the participants and their care givers reported the PedsQL™ questionnaires and 20 participants older than eight years completed the EQ-5D-Y questionnaires. Results: The total mean QoL scores by child- and parent-report PedsQL™ questionnaires were 85.4±17.8 and 82.1±16.3, respectively. Both reported the lowest scores in the emotional functioning domain. The scores by child and parent reports were not different except in the school domain, in which parents reported lower scores. For the EQ-5D-Y questionnaires, 40% of the children reported problems in the domain of having pain or discomfort and 40% reported problems in the domain of feeling worried, sad, or unhappy. Mean (±SD) EQ-5D visual analogue scale value was 86.5±12.0. Conclusion: Children and adolescents with Graves’ disease reported their lowest QoL life scores in the domain of emotional functioning, followed by the physical functioning domains. However, the total QoL score was not lower than the total QoL scores in the previous studies of general healthy populations. Keywords: Health-related quality of life; Quality of life; Children, Graves’ disease