Sickle cell disease (SCD) may have serious consequences that worsen psychosocial functioning and increase the burden of illness. However, little was known about particular disease-related factors linked to the population’s poor health-related quality of life (HRQOL). Therefore, for a study, researchers sought to investigate the relationship between pediatric SCD patients’ HRQOL and pain and disease-related symptoms.
The total number of participants in the cross-sectional quantitative research study was 150 patient and parent pairs, ranging in age from 8 to 17 years. The Pediatric Quality of Life (PedsQL) 3.0 SCD module was used to collect HRQOL measurements, and the parent proxy was used to assess the frequency of pain and other SCD-related symptoms. To determine if pain and symptoms associated with SCD independently predict HRQOL ratings in young people with SCD, linear regression was used.
In children and adolescents with SCD, the frequency of pain (P<0.001) and symptoms associated with SCD (P<0.001) predicted poorer HRQOL ratings. Additionally, this population’s age (P<0.05) showed substantial predictive power for HRQOL.
Pain and signs of an illness Separately expected poorer HRQOL ratings were seen in the research population, demonstrating the possibility of harm to young people with SCD from symptoms other than pain. The implications of the findings expanded doctors’ understanding of SCD-associated symptoms that may be missed since pain is frequently the emphasis, to the disadvantage of other symptoms connected to SCD.
Reference: jpsmjournal.com/article/S0885-3924(22)00708-4/fulltext
