Health-related quality of life based on KIDSCREEN-52 in stuttering children and adolescents

Özet

Objective: Stuttering is a communication disorder thatcan affect an individual’s life in many ways. This studyaimed to evaluate the effects of stuttering on childrenand adolescents’ health-related quality of life (HRQoL).Methods: This is a cross-sectional type of case-controlstudy. Thirty-six children and adolescents diagnosed withstuttering according to DSM-5 and 37 age- and gender-matched healthy children and adolescents were included in the study. The child and adolescent’s HRQoL inboth groups was evaluated using the KIDSCREEN-52 selfand proxy reports.Results: No significant difference was observed in thephysical well-being, psychological well-being, moods andemotions, self-perception, autonomy, parental relationships and home life, financial resources, social supportand peers, school environment, social acceptance-bullying dimensions in the KIDSCREEN-52 questionnairebetween-group comparison of both report and proxyresults. The parental score reports were found to be statistically significantly lower than the children with stuttering in social acceptance-bullying dimension. In contrast, the children’s scores in the dimensions of physicalwell-being, self-perception, parental relationships andhome life, social support and peers and school environment were found to be statistically significantly lowerthan their parents.Conclusion: According to the study results, it was observed that the HRQoL of children between the ages of8-18 who stutter was not different from healthy children.Since factors affecting the HRQoL of children may be affected by developmental processes, the necessity of longitudinal assessment of the HRQoL of stuttering childrenshould be considered.