Evaluation of the school success in children with the diagnosis of congenital heart disease who underwent an intervention

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: Congenital heart disease is one of the most common childhood diseases that affect both the children's and their families social life, quality of life and the children's academic achievement. The aim of this study is to evaluate the school performance of children suffering from congenital heart disease who underwent surgical or catheter based interventions. METHODS: The study group included 50 patients with congenital heart disease underwent surgical or catheter based interventions attending to secondary school (aged 12-15 years old) and 50 healthy controls. The academic success validation from official school grades of lessons Turkish, Mathematics, Science, Social Sciences lessons and behavioral attitudes were obtained from the Ministry of Education ‘’e-school’’ parent information system printouts. The patient group consisted of both cyanotic and acyanotic patients and each groups were compared with controls. RESULTS: Turkish, mathematics, physical education classes and behavioral attitudes note in the patient group was significantly lower than in the control group. The school success in Cyanotic group was significantly lower than the control group in Turkish, mathematics, education lessons and behavioral attitudes grades. Significant difference was not determined in science and social science lessons. CONCLUSION: Cyanotic group's success in mathematic and turkish lessons are lower in children with congenital heart disease especially in cyanotic group. We suggest that providing supportive teaching pragrammes for children with congenital hearth disease are needed in order to maintain academic success.