Endocrine Abstracts

JOINT3532

Introduction: Children diagnosed with growth retardation (nanosom) face the same social and psychological challenges during their development as their healthy peers, with the difference that they also must cope with difficulties arising from their condition.

Objective: The aim of our study was to assess the impact of growth retardation on quality of life, paying particular attention to differences between hormone-treated and follow-up children, and to compare data from two chronic diseases—nanosom and diabetes mellitus (1TDM) - both treated similarly with subcutaneous injections.

Method: The sample consisted of children treated at the Endocrinology and Diabetology outpatient clinic of University of Debrecen between 2007 and 2023. The nanosom sample consisted of 110 individuals, including 69 boys/41 girls, of whom 58 were treated and 52 were followed up. The average age of the children was 12 (SD±4. 3). The 1TDM group consisted of 114 children. To assess quality of life, we used the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory™ (PedsQL™) questionnaire. To evaluate the long-term effects of treatment, we assessed the quality of life of 32 growth hormone-treated children two years after their initial examination.

Results: According to the survey results, the average quality of life for nanosom children was 76. 2%. Contrary to expectations, the quality of life for hormone-treated children - 74. 8% did not show a significant difference compared to untreated patients 77. 8% (P = 0. 317). Regarding gender, boys (77. 4%) experienced negative effects less than girls (74. 2%), but no significant difference was found (P = 0. 301). Based on the aggregated results was confirmed that children under 12 years of age (77. 5%) rated their condition more positively than their older (75. 0%) counterparts (P = 0. 404). Responses to the modules showed that the most negatively affected factors were emotion and school functioning. Regarding injection treatment, children with 1TDM (76. 7%) showed better scores than their growth hormone-treated counterparts (74. 8% - P = 0, 773). The only significant difference (P = 0. 001) between the two group’s data was observed in the social module. Examining the long-term effects of hormone treatment, children showed an improving trend (73. 59% to 77. 92%); however, this difference was not statistically significant (P = 0. 285).

Conclusion: The results for the nanosom population fall short of the full 100%, but the long-term positive effects of hormone therapy were confirmed in this study. Considering injection treatments, no significant differences were found between the nanosom and T1DM control groups. Our research highlights the need for greater attention to emotional support therapy and school acceptance for children diagnosed with growth retardation.