Correlation Between Quality of Life and Severity of Valve Abnormalities in Children with Rheumatic Heart Disease

Rheumatic heart disease (RHD) is one of the chronic diseases that affects the heart valve and requires long-term treatment that can affect the quality of life. We aimed to determine the correlation between quality of life and severity of valve abnormalities in children with rheumatic heart disease. This was a cross-sectional study was performed to 28 children with RHD aged 2 to 18 years old who treated at Integrated Cardiovascular Outpatient Clinic of Sanglah General Hospital from March to April 2018. Patients suffering from other chronic diseases or neurodevelopmental disorders were excluded. Assessment of the quality of life using PedsQL version 4.0 Generic Core Scales questionnaire. Assessment of severity of valve abnormalities using echocardiographic score. Analysis was performed using Spearman correlation test, confident interval (CI) 95%, significant if p<0.05. We found the patients mean age was 12.75 years old and mostly men (18 subjects). Most isolated abnormality was mitral valve (17 subjects), with most involved more than one valve (22 subjects). Almost patients treated with Benzathine penicillin G (25 subjects) as secondary prophylaxis. The mean score of quality of life from the children’s report was 78.05 ± 14.66 and from the parent’ report was 79.69 ± 14.36. The lowest mean score of quality of life is from school function. Between quality of life and severity of valve abnormalities found a weak negative correlation (r = -0.377; p = 0.048). There was a weak negative correlation between quality of life and severity of valve abnormalities in children with rheumatic heart disease.