Abstract:
Background: RHD is one of the most common chronic illnesses encountered in children. But,
very few studies have tried to Asses quality of life in children with RHD in developing country
including Ethiopia, especially in study area
Objectives: This study aimed to asses Quality of Life of children with RHD in Pediatric cardiac
clinic, Jimma University Medical center.
Methodology: The study was conducted at pediatric cardiac follow-up clinic of Jimma Medical
Center, from April 20,to August 20, 2020.The study design was Descriptive cross-sectional study
and children with RHD who have follow-up in study period were included in the study. Data
were collected by trained medical person using structured questionnaire. After cleaning and
coding, the data was interd and analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS)
windows version 25.0. Relevant test of statistical association was employed
Result: A total of Fifty five children (55) were enrolled in this study. The mean age of the study
participants were 12.2 years with the (+SD) age of ±2.34 years. About 12(21.8%) and
17(30.9%) of children have sever wasting and moderate wasting based on MUAC measurement
respectively. Twenty six (47.3%) of study participants had good knowledge towards relationship
of RHD with sore throat. The magnitude of the total quality of life among study participants with
RHD attending their follow up in JUMC was (38.2%), (50.9%) and (10.9%) high, moderate and
poor quality of life respectively. Among children with RHD about (32.7%) of them had bad QOL
towards health and activities, whereas more than one-third (34.5%) had good quality of life. In
this study care giver educational status (X 2 =14.20, P=0.031), level of family income (X 2 =11.44,
P= 0.042), duration of illness before diagnosis(X 2 =9.93, P=0.017) and type of medication used
(X 2 =9.97, P= 0.027) a significant association with quality of life of children with RHD in the
study area.
Conclusion :it was concluded that quality of life is affected in most children with rheumatic
heart disease. The majority of the studied subjects had poor knowledge about rheumatic heart
disease which consequently effect on their quality of life.the majority of the studied subjects had
poor knowledge about Rheumatic heart Health educational program shoud be given to children
who had RHD &their families, about nature of disease, periodic follow up and compliance with
treatment to improve their quality of life
