Health-related quality of life in children hospitalised due to four ent illnesses: a selective review

IntroductionThe concept of health-related quality of life (HRQOL) is nowadays increasingly and more broadly used for evaluating the effectiveness of medical treatment, superseding the earlier ‘quality of life’. The reason is that subjective parameters have now been added – such as health, freedom, and happiness – to previous objective parameters such as social development and material wellbeing. The HRQOL concept applies equally well to otolaryngology and this selective review of the literature focuses on HRQOL outcomes in four childhood ENT diseases. Study aim is to retrospectively evaluate the literature on HRQOL in children hospitalised for chronic sinusitis, nasal septum deviation, adenoid hypertrophy, or hearing disease.Material and methodsPublished studies and case reports were searched in Medline/PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, and ORCID on quality of life based on paediatric patient questionnaires, whether completed by the subjects themselves or their parents. As well as confining results to the four selected illnesses, the following key words were used: health quality of life, otolaryngology/ENT, pediatrics/paediatrics. The review is selective, not comprehensive, with total results limited to 25 studies. Studies before 1999 were omitted because before then ‘quality of life’ was imprecisely defined.ResultsHRQOL scores and well-being were found to significantly deteriorate in pediatric patients suffering from chronic sinusitis, nasal septum deviation, adenoid hypertrophy, or hearing disease. The main problems found were infection, inflammation, disruption to family life and child–parent interaction, fitness-related issues, reduced ENT patencies, and apnea.ConclusionsHRQOL significantly deteriorates in children suffering from the defined ENT diseases. Further studies are needed to cover all ENT diseases.