Comparison of quality of life in healthy children and diagnosed with precocious puberty

Precocious Puberty (PP) is the physical and hormonal manifestation of pubertal development at an earlier age than normal. PP is defined as the initial development of breast growth in girls before the age of 8, and in males it is defined as the onset of testicular growth before the age of 9. The physical and hormonal changes experienced by children with PP affect the physical, emotional, social and school status of children, which causes children to experience psychosocial problems. In this respect, the importance of the quality of life (QL) concept in children with PP comes to the fore since the concept focusses on the physical, emotional and psychosocial evaluation of children. This paper aim to compare of children between 8-12 years of age to determine their the social status and QL. This research was carried out in Hitit University Erol Olçok Training and Research Hospital and in Pediatric Endocrinology Clinic of Sami Ulus Maternity and Child Health and Diseases Training and Research Hospital. A total of 210 children were included in the study including 105 healthy children with similar characteristics who were educated in a primary school under the Provincial Directorate of National Education in order to make necessary comparisons with 105 children with PP aged between 8 and 12 years. Research data were collected by using "Introductory Information Form" and " Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory (PedsQL) for Children 8-12 Years Old". In this study, it was found that PP children had a lower incidence of "absenteeism and swimming activity, seeing a friend outside the school" and this discrepancy was found statistically significant (p<0.05). PedsQL child form total mean scores (TMS) of the children in the study were 78.71±10.84 in children with PP and 82.43±9.81 in healthy children and this difference was found to be statistically significant (p<0.05). The PedsQL parental form TMS of the children with PP in the study was 74.51±13.27 and those of healthy children were 81.90±9.86, and this difference was found to be significantly significant (p <0.001). As a result, it was observed that children with PP had more negative social status than healthy children and their more QL was lower. In this respect, pediatric nurses can be advised to provide psychosocial support to the children with PP with a sense of multidisciplinary team approach by diagnosing them in an earlier period. Key words: Child, Nurse, Puberty Precocio, Quality of life