Toward developing a patient reported outcomes measure for children with heart failure: A qualitative study design

Patient-reported outcome measures (PROM) are used routinely in adult heart failure (HF) practice but not in pediatric (PHF) practice. Adult PROMs are often not applicable to pediatric patients whose manifestations and experience of living with HF differ from adults. We sought to understand the experience of adolescents living with HF to facilitate development of a PROM for PHF.

Between 2019 and 2020, patients aged 12 to 21 years with recent HF and their caregivers were recruited at 2 children's hospitals for qualitative interviews or focus groups about their HF symptoms, physical functioning, and quality of life. Transcripts were analyzed using methods of directed content analysis. Twenty-one patients and 12 caregivers participated. Primary themes spanned 4 domains: (1) functional impairment (eg, inability to participate in activities of daily living); (2) social impact (eg, feeling different or isolated from others); (3) emotional impact (eg, anxiety, depression, frustration); (4) illness burden (eg, taking multiple medications, time burden of clinic visits and procedures).

The health and social experiences of adolescents with HF differ from adults with HF and warrant development of an adolescent-specific PROM. Such a PROM would be useful to clinicians managing adolescents with HF and to regulators evaluating emerging medical products.