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Do parental ratings on cognition reflect neuropsychological outcome in congenital heart disease?
Author(s) -
Miatton Marijke,
De Wolf Daniël,
François Katrien,
Thiery Evert,
Vingerhoets Guy
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
acta pædiatrica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.772
H-Index - 115
eISSN - 1651-2227
pISSN - 0803-5253
DOI - 10.1111/j.1651-2227.2007.00530.x
Subject(s) - medicine , neuropsychology , cognition , heart disease , disease , outcome (game theory) , neuropsychological testing , pediatrics , clinical psychology , psychiatry , cardiology , mathematics , mathematical economics
Aim: To describe the parental view of the cognitive skills of their child with a surgically corrected congenital heart disease (CHD) and compare it to objectified cognitive measures in children with CHD 6–12 years postoperatively. Methods: Parents completed a questionnaire on several cognitive functions of their child. Children with CHD and healthy controls (n = 86, aged 8 years 8 months ± 1 year 6 months) underwent an abbreviated IQ‐testing and a neurodevelopmental assessment. Results: Parents of the children with CHD more frequently indicated lower sustained attention (p < 0.05), lower divided attention (p < 0.001), more problems with memory and learning skills (p < 0.05), and deficient gross motor functioning (p < 0.01) compared to the parents of healthy controls. Intellectual and neuropsychological assessment revealed a lower estimated full‐scale IQ (p < 0.01), worse sensorimotor functioning (p < 0.001), and lower performances on language (p < 0.001), attention/executive functioning (p < 0.05), and memory (p < 0.05) in the CHD‐group. Several items of the questionnaire were significant predictors for worse neurodevelopmental outcome. Conclusion: Overall, the objective and subjective measures on cognitive functioning are in agreement and indicate the presence of neurocognitive deficits in children with CHD. This study endorses the accuracy and usefulness of a parental questionnaire to report on the cognitive functioning of the child and urges the investigation of neurocognitive functioning in children with CHD at follow‐up.