Estudio EPOCA sobre el impacto de los problemas de conducta en niños menores de 12 años y sus familias

Resumo

Introduction: The EPOCA study aimed to assess the impact of behavioural problems on health and quality of life (QoL) of pediatric population and to know the non-pharmacological recommendations of pediatrician in such cases. Methods: Observational multicentre study of children aged 6-12 years (without neurological and/or psychiatric diagnosis) whom parents reported behavioral problems during a standard medical visit. Baseline data of EPOCA's participants was compared with those reported for pediatric population of the 2011 Spanish National Health Survey (SNHS). Other analyzes included comparisons of different outcomes at 3-months according to pediatrician recommendations between a group of patients who received dietary supplementation with omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) and another group without this recommendation. Results: Baseline scores showed that 67.8% of children were considered with “probable” mental health problems, while a lower score on QoL regarding sample of SNHS was also observed. Parents' QoL also was affected depending on the presence or not of behavioural problems in their progeny. Among the recommendations of pediatricians, supplementation with omega-3 for 3 months was associated with significantly improvements on mental health (35.1 vs. 25.5%; p= 0.019), on behavioral problems (40.9 vs. 29.3%; p= 0.017) and on hyperactivity (35.9 vs. 24.1%; p= 0.017). The same trend was observed on “paying attention” and “feel full of energy” (p <0.05; 79.7 ± 103.6 vs. 65.2 ± 98.3, and 20.1 ± 80 vs. 13.3 ± 94.5, respectively). Conclusions: Globally, children with behavioural problems have shown worse scores of health and QoL compared with children of the general population. Parents' QoL was also significantly affected by the behavioral problems of their children. Overall, paediatricians' recommendations, including dietary supplementation with omega-3 PUFA, seems to have positive effects on different factors associated with health in children with behavioral problems