Psycho-social outcome in liver transplanted
children: beware of emotional self-assessment!
Psycho-social outcome in children after liver transplantation (LT) is known to be inferior toage-related peers. Yet, when children and their parents are questioned by their nurse orphysician about the child's psycho-social well-being, the answers usually are very positive.We hypothesized that patients and their parents after LT report their psycho-social well-beingtoo enthusiastically when enquired by their personal care takers.
Methods:
Inclusion criteria: LT at the Children's University Hospital of Geneva 1992-2007, age >3years, <16 years, time after LT >2 years.
Children and their parents were questioned by theirwell-known, familiar nurse at the annual follow up visit about their personal well-being. Toallow for evaluation of answers, scores (good, medium, bad) were attributed to the differentquestions.
46 children were included in the study.
Results:
Mean age at enquiry was 9.7 years (SD 4 years), mean time after LT was 7.5 years (SD 4.2years). The different themes were reported as good for: parent-child relationship (83%),relationship with peers (98%), relation with siblings (39%), sport activities (54%), playactivities (78%), school performance (87%), expression skills (67%), and general behavior(89%).
Conclusion:
Most of our LT children and their parents consider, during a personal interview with a closelyrelated, familiar nurse, that the child's psycho-social outcome is good.
Yet, it is generallyacknowledged that children after LT have negatively altered psycho-social outcomes. Thus,emotionally influenced reports about psycho-social outcome in children after LT must belooked at with care.
Author: Ana Maria CalinescuValérie A McLinDominique BelliBarbara E Wildhaber Credits/Source: Italian Journal of Pediatrics 2012, 38:37
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