QUALITY OF LIFE IN CHILDREN WITH HEADACHE IN A DUTCH GENERAL HOSPITAL COMPARED WITH A COHORT OF HEALTHY CHILDREN

Objectives: To assess the quality of life in children with headache presented at an outpatient pediatric department in a Dutch general hospital (Vlietland Hospital Vlaardingen/Schiedam, the Netherlands)

Methods: From October 2003 until October 2005 all children who were specifically referred to the outpatient pediatric department of the Vlietland Hospital because of headache were investigated by protocol. A thorough history and general physical and neurological examination were performed. The International Headache Society (IHS) criteria were used for headache diagnosis. Quality of life (QoL) was measured by using the Dutch translation of the Child Health Questionnaire (CHQ-PF50 Dutch edition), a questionnaire of 50 items divided over 14 scales or life domains that was originally developed by Landgraf and translated and validated for the Dutch pediatric population. Statistical analyses were performed with means and standard deviations. The data were compared with the data from a previously investigated cohort of healthy children in the region Rijnmond, the same region where this study took place. The data were also compared with the data of Landgraf who investigated a comparable cohort of children in the USA with asthma and ADHD with the same questionnaire.

Results: A total of 70 children were included in the study. The age differed between 4 and 17 years, 37 children were male and 33 were female. Headache diagnosis by the IHS criteria was tension type headache (29 children), migraine (37 children) or chronic daily headache (6 children). There were two children who had two diagnoses. The QoL of the investigated children was on nearly all the investigated domains decreased compared with the cohort of healthy children, especially on the domain of bodily pain and global health. Compared with the cohort of children with asthma the QoL was also significantly less for our headache group on nearly all investigated domains. Compared with the cohort of children with ADHD the QoL was in most fields comparable or better, especially on the domain of self-esteem and family activities. Conclusion: Quality of life in children with headache presented in an outpatient pediatric department in a general hospital in the Netherlands is considerably affected compared with the quality of life with healthy children and even less than that of a cohort of children with asthma in the U.S.A.