Quality of life in pediatric patients affected by electrophysiologic disease

Treatment of electrophysiologic (EP) disease in pediatric patients has improved; however, the effects on quality of life (QOL) are unknown.

The purpose of this study was to compare QOL within EP disease groups and to other congenital heart diseases, to evaluate the effects of cardiac rhythm devices on QOL, and to identify drivers of QOL in EP disease.

Cross-sectional study of patient/parent proxy-reported Pediatric Cardiac Quality of Life Inventory scores (Total, Disease Impact, Psychosocial Impact) in subjects aged 8 to 18 years from 11 centers with congenital complete heart block (CCHB), ventricular tachycardia (VT), supraventricular tachycardia (SVT), and long QT syndrome (LQTS). QOL was compared between EP disease groups and congenital heart disease groups [bicuspid aortic valve (BAV), tetralogy of Fallot (TOF), and Fontan]. General linear modeling was used to perform group comparisons and to identify predictors of QOL variation.

Among 288 patient-parent pairs, mean age was 12.8 ± 3.0 years. CCHB (μ = 83) showed higher patient Total QOL than other EP disease cohorts (P ≤ .02; LQTS μ = 73; SVT μ = 74). SVT (μ = 75) and LQTS (μ = 75) had lower patient Total scores than BAV (μ = 81; P ≤ .008). Patient/parent-proxy QOL scores for all EP disease groups were not different than TOF and higher than Fontan. The presence of a cardiac rhythm device was associated with lower QOL scores in LQTS (μ = 66 vs μ = 76; P < .01). Predictors of lower patient/parent-proxy QOL included EP disease type (P ≤ .03), increased medical care utilization (P ≤ .04), and no parental college degree (P ≤ .001).

Given the significant variation in QOL in EP disease type, stratification by EP disease type and increased medical care utilization may allow for targeted interventions to improve QOL.