Health related quality of life of children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes.

Type 1 diabetes mellitus is a chronic health condition which affects approximately 750 thousand diabetics in the Czech Republic out of whom 3300 are children at the age of 8-18 years. The effects of illness and treatment go beyond medical control therefore evaluation of quality of life (QOL) is vital for children and adolescents with diabetes in order to examine how diabetes and its complicated and demanding treatment regimen affects their various life domains - family relationships, school, social activities, etc. Health related quality of life has been recognized as an important pediatric outcome measure in the past years and therefore health related quality of life of these children and adolescents was evaluated. The Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory 4.0 (PedsQL) and PedsQL 3.0 Module Diabetes were translated into the Czech language and administered to 79 children with diabetes and 79 parents. The objective of this study was to examine general and health related quality of life of children with diabetes at the age of 8-18. Results showed, that children endorse greater QOL in both general and diabetes related scales compared to their parents. Also, the concordance in reports of parents and children of QOL in children was variable. With regard to the aim of the research to determine whether QOL outcomes are predicted by duration of diabetes, results show that the duration of diabetes is a significant predictor of QOL in children. These results of QOL in children in the Czech Republic are then compared with the outcomes available from abroad.