| Abstract |
Background Limited research has been conducted on outcome of pediatric patients in the Emergency Department. In Greece, there are no studies to date on the health-related quality of life of children with trauma.
Objective Evaluation of the health-related quality of life of children and adolescents who presented with trauma, one month after visiting the Emergency Department.
Methods This was a prospective cohort study, including children and adolescents, 5-18 years of age, who visited the Emergency Department with a satisfactory level of consciousness within 24 hours after having suffered from trauma and their immediate caregivers. The data collection was from October 2019 to February 2020. The “Quality of Life Inventory TM 4.0 Generic Core Scale” was used to assess their general health-related quality of life, the severity of trauma was assessed using the “Pediatric Trauma Score” and a supplementary questionnaire was used, where demographic data, the type, mechanism and anatomical region of the injury of the patients were noted. The SPSS ver 22 program was used to analyze the study data.
Results A total of 108 children were included in the survey, 67 of whom were boys. Most injuries occurred in children aged 13-18 in the afternoon. Falls of <2m were the most common mechanism of injury (36.2%), the most frequent type of injury was subcutaneous or soft tissue (49.1%) and mostly affected body parts were the upper extremities (21.3%). 3 children showed increased possible mortality. In all age groups, the health-related quality of life was found to be decreased. With p <0.05 and 99% CIs, a significant correlation was found between the mechanism and HRQOL at 5-7 years of age (.006 and .019 in parents and children respectively), mainly caused by non-accidental traumas. The type of injury also affected negatively the HRQOL at the ages 5-7 (.016 and .032 in parents and children respectively) and 13-18 (<0.001 in both groups), especially when trauma appeared in subcutaneous and soft tissues. Finally, trauma has been shown to affect almost all age groups in terms of physical functionality.
Conclusion There is a great need for the development of informative programs for the prevention of child injuries, as well as for the further training of the ED staff. Decreased health-related quality of life is an important finding, especially in the physical/functional sector. There is room for improvement concerning patient follow-up and their families, with the ultimate goal of regaining their optimal health condition as it used to be before trauma.
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Η ποιότητα ζωής σε παιδιά και εφήβους που λόγω τραύματος προσήλθαν στο Τμήμα Επειγόντων Περιστατικών του Γενικού Νοσοκομείου Χανίων
