Psycho-social outcome in liver transplanted children: Beware of emotional self-assessment!

Abstract

Background: Psycho-social outcome in children after liver transplantation (LT) is known to be inferior to agerelated peers. Yet, when children and their parents are questioned by their nurse or physician about the child's psycho-social well-being, the answers usually are very positive. We hypothesized that patients and their parents after LT report their psycho-social well-being too enthusiastically when enquired by their personal care takers. Methods: Inclusion criteria: LT at the Children's University Hospital of Geneva 1992-2007, age >3 years, <16 years, time after LT >2 years. Children and their parents were questioned by their well-known, familiar nurse at the annual follow up visit about their personal well-being. To allow for evaluation of answers, scores (good, medium, bad) were attributed to the different questions. 46 children were included in the study. Results: Mean age at enquiry was 9.7 years (SD 4 years), mean time after LT was 7.5 years (SD 4.2 years). The different themes were reported as good for: parent-child relationship (83%), relationship with peers (98%), relation with siblings (39%), sport activities (54%), play activities (78%), school performance (87%), expression skills (67%), and general behavior (89%). Conclusion: Most of our LT children and their parents consider, during a personal interview with a closely related, familiar nurse, that the child's psycho-social outcome is good. Yet, it is generally acknowledged that children after LT have negatively altered psycho-social outcomes. Thus, emotionally influenced reports about psycho-social outcome in children after LT must be looked at with care. © 2012 Calinescu et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.