Assessing health related quality of life of school aged Saudi children in western province using the validated Arabic version of child health questionaire-parent form-50.

OBJECTIVES: To assess the health-related quality of life (HRQOL) of children from a community in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, excluding those with known chronic illnesses. Methods: Four schools in Jeddah participated in this cross-sectional study, which was conducted from February 2018 to February 2019. The parents of 5-14 year-old children were surveyed using the validated Arabic version of the Child Health Questionnaire-Parent Form 50 (CHQ-PF50). It consisted of 50 items divided into 15 scales (namely, 11 multi-item and 4 single-item scales) and expressed as scores of 0-100, with higher scores indicating better HRQOL. The levels of HRQOL were analyzed and compared. Results: The parents of 498 children answered the questionnaire. The mean scores of CHQ-PF50 subscales were relatively high (greater than 80) in 8 out of 15 domains. However, relatively low scores were observed for general health perception (70.01), behavior (73.70), and mental health (75.65). Boys scored lower in behavior (difference of means = -5.80), global behavior (-4.47), mental health (-4.81), general health perception (-2.59), parental impact-emotional (-5.11), family activities (-1.77), and family cohesion (-2.19). Furthermore, adolescent boys scored lower in global health, mental health, global behavior, and parental impact. Conclusion: This study showed globally adequate levels of HRQOL among Saudi children, with some limitations in behavior and mental health, especially in boys and adolescents.

Urinary tract infection in children younger than 5 years. Etiology and associated urological anomalies.

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the most common underlying organisms, and associated urological anomalies in children presenting with urinary tract infection (UTI). METHODS: Retrospectively, all children with confirmed UTI between October 2013 and February 2014 were evaluated at King Abdulaziz University Hospital, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The electronic files of 279 children presenting with UTI, aged less than 5 years were reviewed. RESULTS: A total of 153 patients (85 males) with a mean (SD) age of 15 (19.86) months were included in the study. Recurrent UTI was present in 45.1%. Urine collection in children less than 2 years of age was through trans-urethral catheterization in 69.4%, while midstream urine was the main method in those above 2 years (78.6%). Escherichia coli (E. coli) was the causative organism in 41.2% of first UTI. The second most common organism was Klebsiella Pneumoniae, seen in 19.6%. Urological anomalies were found in 28.1% of the overall study population. Ninety percent of those with single UTI did not have anomalies. However, urological anomalies were reported in 50.7% of those with recurrent episodes of UTI (p less than 0.005). Non-E. coli cases were associated with a higher percentage of abnormal renal ultrasonography results (p=0.006). CONCLUSION: Escherichia coli was the most common causative organism for UTI, and a single episode of UTI signified normal urological anatomy.