Sense of coherence and quality of life in adolescents with heart disease

A cross-sectional study was carried out with 164 adolescents with congenital or valvular heart disease, aged between 10 and 18 years, treated in a referral center in the city of Recife – Brazil. The information collected contains census data, type of heart disease, economic status identified according to the Brazilian Criteria for Economic Classification (ABEP), as well as an evaluation of the SoC and the QoL.

Results:

The SoC (50.09) and QoL (72.23) exhibited high average scores. The SoC was positively correlated with all dimensions of the QoL scale (p<0.001). The social and school dimensions, respectively, presented the highest and lowest scores. The linear regression analysis revealed that the SoC influenced the school and emotional dimensions.

Conclusions:

This study demonstrates that the SoC is a protective factor in the life of adolescents. This factor helps on the improvement of perception of QoL and on successfully dealing with daily adversities and chronic stress.

Keywords:
Adolescent; Sense of coherence; Quality of life; Heart diseases

	Average±DP	p-value
Age group (years)		0.150^a
9–11	51.31±6.60
12–14	49.20±6.04
15–18	50.60±5.99
Gender		0.338²
Male	50.65±5.50
Female	49.51±6.90
Schooling		0.320^b
Incomplete secondary education	49.88±6.30
Complete secondary education/high school	51.17±6.18
Social class (ABEP)		0.062^c
B	53.75±4.18
C	49.90±6.47
D+E	49.47±5.75
Income (MW)		0.493^c
<1	50.94±6.37
1–3	50.21±6.14
≥3	48.44±6.88
Diseases
Valvopathy		0.463^b
Yes	50.25±6.25
No	49.64±6.26
Congenital cardiopathy		0.156^b
Yes	49.35±6.23
No	50.54±6.23
Symptoms
Dyspnea		0.010^b
Yes	48.98±6.17
No	51.25±6.13
Precordial pain		0.286^b
Yes	49.30±5.95
No	50.34±6.33
Tachycardia		0.019^b
Yes	49.01±5.98
No	51.16±6.35
Tachypnea		0.573^b
Yes	48.80±6.60
No	50.21±6.21

	Dimensions of Quality of Life
	Physical	Emotional	Social	Academic	Psychosocial	Total score
	Average±DP	Average±DP	Average±DP	Average±DP	Average±DP	Average±DP
Age group (years)
9–11	69.83±18.81	74.18±19.16	77.45±19.58	63.27±15.90	71.63±16.09	71.01±16.30
12–14	72.17±18.65	75.53±17.39	76.88±20.22	63.00±16.24	71.80±14.76	71.93±15.20
15–18	81.25±14.36	74.17±16.25	85.17±14.88	68.50±16.56	75.94±11.73	77.79±10.74
p-value	0.023^a	0.875^a	0.166^a	0.258^b	0.434^a	0.165^a
Gender
Male	76.43±18.04	76.39±16.84	80.54±18.79	63.49±16.15	73.47±14.48	74.50±14.83
Female	69.75±18.11	73.33±18.41	76.54±19.74	64.69±16.40	71.52±14.92	70.91±14.96
p-value	0.018^c	0.251^c	0.179^c	0.638^d	0.412^a	0.137^b
Schooling
<12 years	71.99±18.55	74.71±18.03	76.67±19.45	62.39±15.92	71.26±15.02	71.51±15.27
≥12 years	79.69±16.64	74.79±15.57	88.96±15.25	73.33±15.51	79.03±11.01	79.26±11.84
p-value	0.050^c	0.922^c	0.004^c	0.007^c	0.022^a	0.024^b
Social class*
B	83.07±18.24 ^(A)	77.92±17.51	88.33±15.72 ^(A)	76.67±19.46 ^(A)	80.97±13.42	81.70±14.59
C	73.52±18.24 ^(A)	75.86±18.28	80.09±18.81 ^(A)	64.87±15.40 ^(A)	73.61±14.36	73.58±14.69
D+E	68.58±17.65 ^(B)	70.69±15.22	70.42±19.69 ^(B)	57.36±15.05 ^(B)	66.16±14.15	67.00±14.22
p-value	0.041^c	0.190^c	0.007^c	0.002^c	0.003^b	0.005^b
Income**
<1	74.22±22.46	75.63±19.48	71.25±25.98	63.13±18.70	70.00±20.09	71.47±20.62
1–3	73.27±18.30	75.00±17.42	78.85±18.52	64.15±16.13	72.67±14.24	72.88±14.58
≥3	71.18±15.10	73.33±18.55	83.06±17.50	64.44±15.61	73.61±12.90	72.77±12.46
p-value	0.779^c	0.953^c	0.385^c	0.979^c	0.903^b	0.989^b

	Dimensions of Quality of Life
	Physical	Emotional	Social	Academic	Psychosocial	Total score
	Average±DP	Average±DP	Average±DP	Average±DP	Average±DP	Average±DP
Diseases
Valvopathy
Yes	74.48±17.57	74.83±17.26	78.25±19.77	64.04±16.33	72.38±14.50	73.11±14.55
No	69.46±20.00	75.00±18.86	79.43±18.18	64.20±16.17	72.88±15.36	71.69±16.14
p-value	0.167^a	0.874^a	0.817^a	0.985^a	0.869^a	0.583^a
Congenital cardiopathy
Yes	69.59±19.68	74.21±18.01	79.92±18.68	62.86±16.13	72.33±14.97	71.38±15.88
No	75.34±17.17	75.30±17.49	77.72±19.74	64.85±16.33	72.62±14.58	73.57±14.37
p-value	0.067^a	0.668^a	0.479^a	0.446^b	0.892^a	0.363^a
Symptoms
Dyspnea
Yes	66.29±17.09	71.49±18.35	74.88±19.34	61.37±15.74	69.25±14.49	68.22±14.52
No	80.31±16.86	78.44±16.24	82.44±18.62	66.94±16.35	75.94±14.18	77.46±13.99
p-value	<0.001^a,*	0.018^a,*	0.010^a,*	0.054^a	0.004^a,*	<0.001^a,*
Precordial pain
Yes	68.20 ±16.03	71.75±15.26	80.50±16.04	63.13±14.31	71.79±12.30	70.54±12.07
No	74.72±18.80	75.89±18.29	77.94±20.27	64.40±16.85	72.74±15.42	73.43±15.76
p-value	0.040^a,*	0.155^a	0.589^a	0.694^a	0.543^a	0.212^a
Tachycardia
Yes	65.13±15.65	72.07±16.70	72.99±19.15	58.90±14.70	67.99±13.39	66.99±13.03
No	81.14±17.36	77.68±18.21	84.15±17.91	69.27±16.12	77.03±14.61	78.46±14.62
p-value	<0.001^a,*	0.035^a,*	<0.001^a,*	<0.001^b,*	<0.001^a,*	<0.001^a,*
Tachypnea
Yes	68.75±12.61	74.67±16.20	68.33±18.77	51.00±8.49	64.67±10.22	66.09±9.36
No	73.57±18.78	74.90±17.83	79.60±19.12	65.40±16.26	73.30±14.86	73.40±15.27
p-value	0.196^a	0.881^a	0.023^a,*	<0.001^a,*	0.021^a,*	0.040^a,*

Dimension	Spearman correlation	Multiple linear regression
	s (p-value)
Physical	0.484 (<0.001)	-0.052 (0.111)
Emotional	0.515 (<0.001)	0.117 (<0.001)
Social	0.482 (<0.001)	0.066 (0.025)
Academic	0.505 (<0.001)	0.131 (<0.001*)
Psychosocial	0.603 (<0.001)	–
Total score	0.550 (<0.001)

Sociedade de Pediatria de São Paulo R. Maria Figueiredo, 595 - 10o andar, 04002-003 São Paulo - SP - Brasil, Tel./Fax: (11 55) 3284-0308; 3289-9809; 3284-0051 - São Paulo - SP - Brazil
E-mail: rpp@spsp.org.br

Acompanhe os números deste periódico no seu leitor de RSS

[1] Corresponding author. E-mail: gabriele.lima2@hotmail.com (G. L. Araujo).