Quality of life in pediatric heart, heart-lung, and lung transplant recipients.

Abstract

Few studies have assessed quality of life in pediatric heart and/or lung transplant recipients, and have varied by the tool used, the design employed, and the time of assessment from transplant. The results also varied including normal to abnormal "psychologic adjustment", diminishing problem behavior at home following transplantation, as well as improvements and no change in quality of life using tools designed specifically for the objective assessment of quality of life. This area of study is in its infancy and thus future studies should: 1) design and utilize standard tools (both global and disease-specific) that have documented validity and reliability in pediatric transplant recipients; 2) examine changes in quality of life longitudinally, and 3) identify predictors of quality of life and potential treatments that can help improve quality of life in pediatric transplant recipients.