COPING AND SATISFACTION WITH GROWTH-HORMONE TREATMENT AMONG SHORT-STATURE CHILDREN

The ability of children to cope with a chronic medical problem requiri ng prolonged treatment has an effect on the quality of life of these c hildren and of their parents and serves as an index of the quality of treatment. This study deals with coping ability and satisfaction with treatment of children whose stature was two or more SD below the avera ge for age and gender. The study population included 96 patients, 53 o f whom were male, who were on growth hormone (GH) treatment for at lea st 1 year. 65 patients were without any underlying disease, 15 had cla ssical GH deficiency and 16 had Turner syndrome or renal disease. All patients were treated with daily injections at home from 12 to 66 mont hs. Using a self-administered questionnaire, the ability to cope and t he degree of satisfaction and complicance with treatment were assessed . No significant differences were found with respect to gender, the pr esence of an underlying disease, age at which treatment commenced or d uration of treatment. Despite the fact that the outcome of GH treatmen t on final height has yet to be established, satisfaction and complian ce were high.