Do children with asymptomatic ventricular preexcitation have similar quality of life as healthy children?

BACKGROUND

To our knowledge, no studies have assessed quality of life (QoL) in asymptomatic children with a preexcitation electrocardiogram pattern.

AIM: To evaluate the QoL of children with asymptomatic Wolff-Parkinson-White (WPW) syndrome.

METHODS

This study involved QoL assessment of 31 children with asymptomatic preexcitation and 82 healthy children using the WHOQOL-BREF and the Pediatric Arrhythmia Related Score (PARS), a specific questionnaire that we have developed, which is related to patients' feelings and observations concerning arrhythmia.

RESULTS

There were no significant differences between the two groups in all the measured domains; however, there were significant differences regarding general satisfaction with their health condition (P = 0.01). There were no differences in general satisfaction with the QoL, but WPW children more often experienced palpitations than the control group (P <0.001) and were more likely to feel sad (P = 0.046) and nervous (P = 0.04) compared to healthy children.

CONCLUSIONS

The children with WPW were more dissatisfied with their health compared to healthy children. Although both groups of children had similar levels of satisfaction with their QoL, some areas of physical and psychological parameters of QoL were worse in WPW children. The PARS questionnaire is a useful tool as a disease-specific QoL instrument, which supplements the general questionnaire and aids in clinical practice and decision-making.