Objectives: To assess the quality of life (QoL) of children suffering from juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) in Poland, to compare QoL of children with JIA and healthy children, and to compare children’s and parents’ assessments of QoL.
Material and methods: The KIDSCREEN-52 questionnaire (children’s and parents’ version) was used to assess the quality of life. The QoL in JIA patients and healthy peers from European and Polish reference groups was compared by the t-test. The Bland-Altman method was used to evaluate child and parent assessment agreement.
Results: Eighty-nine questionnaires were obtained from children (median age: 14 years; 62% female; JIA history longer than 1 year) and 84 questionnaires from parents. The QoL of JIA patients was lower than in healthy peers from the European reference group in terms of physical well-being (p < 0.001), psychological well-being (p = 0.011), autonomy (p < 0.001) and social support and peers (p < 0.001). The QoL of JIA patients compared with the QoL of children from the Polish reference group was lower only in terms of physical well-being (p < 0.001), whereas it was higher in terms of moods and emotions (p = 0.023), parent relations and home life (p = 0.005) and financial resources (p < 0.001). In most terms the assessment performed by the parent was lower than the child’s. The most significant differences were observed for physical well-being (p < 0.001), psychological well-being (p = 0.016), and self-perception (p = 0.013).
Conclusions: The present study is the first assessment of QoL of JIA children in Poland. In our study the quality of life in JIA children was lower than in healthy peers. Discrepancies between the assessment of the child’s QoL performed by the child and the parent were found. Both assessments should be taken into account in clinical practice as well as in research studies.