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Topic Name: Tool to measure Physical, Emotional and Psychological functioning in Children may fail to accurately gauge these Quality-of-Life
Category: Biomedical
Research persons: Dr. Jennifer L. Dodson, MD
Location: Johns Hopkins Children’s Center, United States
Details
A small but revealing study from the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center suggests that a widely used tool to measure physical, emotional and psychological functioning and well-being in children may fail to accurately gauge these quality-of-life indicators in the children with some of the most severe bladder conditions, such as
spina bifida and
bladder exstrophies. Another possibility is that children with such conditions manage to adapt and have a relatively normal quality of life, researchers say. Their findings are being presented at the American Academy of Pediatrics Conference Oct. 26 through Oct. 30 in San Francisco.
Using a standard questionnaire, researchers surveyed 50 children between the ages of 11 and 17 with bladder abnormalities that can cause incontinence, among other distressing effects. Surprisingly, researchers found no real difference in
quality-of-life reports between children with such chronic conditions and children without them.
“Our findings suggest that either our tool is not sensitive enough to measure well-being and functioning in children with
urological
conditions, or that these children somehow adapt to their disability,” says lead investigator Jennifer Dodson, M.D., a pediatric urologist at Hopkins.
Even more surprisingly, children with chronic urological conditions scored higher than healthy children in certain areas such as risk-taking, an exciting finding that may indicate that such children, in fact, do better in some aspects of daily life, researchers say.
“It is true that some children learn to cope and live with their disability, yet we are still concerned that we may be lacking a precise-enough radar to detect those who do not adapt and continue to suffer,” Dodson says.
Fine-tuning existing quality-of-life screens will allow researchers to:
Design better ways for children to cope with their disability.
Compare the efficacy of treatments by measuring before and after quality-of-life reports.
Other researchers in the study: Susan Furth, M.D. Ph.D., John P. Gearhart, M.D., both of Hopkins Children’s; Albert W. Wu, M.D., Chun-Ju Hsiao, M.H.S., Marie Diener-West, Ph.D., of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health; Eric Levey, M.D., of the
Kennedy Krieger Institute.
About Johns Hopkins Medicine
Much of what we take for granted in medicine today—from the rigorous training of physicians and nurses to the emphasis on research and the rapid application of that research to patient care—emerged from innovations made more than a century ago at a brand new medical center in Baltimore, Johns Hopkins. Indeed, today the very name Johns Hopkins means medicine to a majority of Americans, according to a recent Gallup poll.
Hopkins now uses one overarching name—Johns Hopkins Medicine—to identify its whole medical enterprise. This $4 billion virtual organization unites the physicians and scientists of The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine with the health professionals and facilities that make up the broad Johns Hopkins Health System.
About Researcher:
Dr. Jennifer L. Dodson, MD
Dr. Dodson practices Urology in Baltimore, Maryland. Dr. Jennifer Dodson, a female, graduated from the University Of Wi Med School with a MD and has been in the profession for 11 years.
Address
600 North Wolfe Street,
Baltimore, Maryland (MD) 21287
Specialties
Urology
Gender
Female
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