Pediatric quality of life in children with otolaryngologic disease: what inventories are available and what is still needed?

This article reviews the recently published literature that evaluated QOL in children with common pediatric otolaryngologic problems. Recent findingsAmong the 41 reviewed articles that used QOL as an outcome, 14 disease-specific QOL surveys and 12 generic QOL questionnaires were used. QOL instruments that had been validated in adults were frequently used in children without validation in pediatric populations. For children, parent-reported outcomes of caregiver concerns are often used as proxy measures of QOL for the child, and only a few QOL instruments asked the child to rate their own perception of their QOL. Several studies used nonvalidated QOL surveys as outcomes. SummaryQOL is being evaluated in an increasing number of pediatric otolaryngologic disorders. Although there are numerous surveys to measure generic pediatric QOL, validated disease-specific surveys for children are less common, especially those that utilize child self-report. The lack of disease-specific pediatric surveys for otolaryngologic disorders hampers the ability to document change or differences in patient-oriented outcomes with interventions.
Source: Current Opinion in Otolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery - Category: ENT & OMF Tags: PEDIATRIC OTOLARYNGOLOGY: Edited by Lisa Buckmiller Source Type: research