Health-related quality of life in adult survivors of childhood sarcoidosis

Summary 

Aim

To describe health-related quality of life (hrQOL) in adult subjects who had sarcoidosis in childhood.

Methods

Forty-six children (24 boys), all ethnic Danes ≤15 years of age with sarcoidosis were recorded in Denmark in 1979–1994. Three patients were deceased prior to this study. At follow-up, the 43 surviving adult subjects were invited to complete the short-form health survey questionnaire SF-36, being completed by 34 subjects (14 men). SF-36 scores were compared with the scores in the Danish reference population.

Results

At follow-up, 30/34 patients had recovered from sarcoidosis and 4/34 patients had persistent chronic active disease with impaired lung function. SF-36 scores in all domains were similar to scores in the reference population; the four patients with chronic active disease had lower scores in three domains. In the entire series, physical component summary (PCS) score and mental component summary (MCS) score was similar to the reference population.

Conclusion

Childhood sarcoidosis has a favourable prognosis concerning health status in adulthood. The majority of adult subjects had a health status that was indistinguishable from a healthy reference population.

Keywords: Children, Follow-up, Quality of life, Sarcoidosis, SF-36