Assessment of Quality of Life in a Sample of Short Stature Iraqi Children with Growth Hormone Deficiency

Abstract

Background: Short stature (SS) is defined as a height of 2.0 or more standard deviations (SD) below the population-specific mean height for age and gender. 2.5% of children have short stature, and it is one of the most frequent causes for children to see a growth specialist during their childhood. It is challenging to generalize about the effect of short stature on psycho-social adaption given the data currently available.  Health-related quality of life (HrQoL) was generally shown to be lower in clinically identified short stature children than in population-based normal-sized reference groups. Aim: Examine the behavioral pattern and mental health of SS and its psychological influence on QoL of children/adolescence. In addition, compare the behavioral response and QoL between growth hormone deficiency GHD and control groups. Methods: It is a cross sectional study, included 80 participants (60 with GHD and 20 with normal height as control group) between 4 and 18 years old. The parents of the participants were given a parent-reported version of the written Quality of Life in Short Stature Youth QoLISSY questionnaire in Arabic in order to examine the association with the socio-demographic characteristics of the participants. Results: 51.25% female and 48.75% male included in this study, the mean age at assessment was 12.1 ± 2.7, and 11.8 ± 2.6 of the GHD and control group, respectively. There was significant difference in QoLISSY total score between GHD and control groups. The association between socio-demographic characteristics of the participants was significantly different. Conclusion: The QoL of Iraqi children with GHD showed lower scores in all domains of QoLISSY compared to normal children.