Impact of Tonsillectomy on the Life Quality of Parents to Children With Obstructive Sleep-Disordered Breathing.

OBJECTIVE

Parents of children with any chronic illness may experience increased anxiety and reduced health-related quality of life (QoL). Our objective was to evaluate the change in parental QoL before vs after tonsillectomy. Our hypothesis was that pediatric tonsil surgery with or without adenoidectomy would improve parental QoL.

STUDY

DESIGN

A prospective cohort study.

SETTING

An otolaryngology department in a tertiary academic center.

METHODS

We enrolled parents of 79 children <5 years old. Adenotonsillectomy due to an obstructive airway indication was performed in 45 children. A group of 34 parents to healthy children served as a control group. Initially, we validated a modified version of the PAR-ENT-QoL questionnaire; then, we analyzed QoL parameters among parents of children with obstructive sleep-disordered breathing before and after surgical treatment.

RESULTS

We found significant differences between the QoL score before and after surgery (P = .003). The QoL score after surgery significantly improved and was even lower than that of the control group (P < .001).

CONCLUSIONS

These results highlight the importance of timely diagnosis and treatment of children with obstructive sleep-disordered breathing, as this condition may affect not only the children themselves but also their caregivers.