Quality of life in children with congenital heart disease: An Integrative Review

The Congenital Heart Diseases (CHD) is a heart anatomic malformation which may cause alteration in function and also has a complex etiology without a clear cause. In this context, the investigation of these children’s quality of life becomes relevant, since the heart disease brings implications related not only to the physical structure, but also emotional and family. Objective: The aim of this study is to search scientific knowledge productions about children’s quality of life who coping with CHD. Method: This is a study of integrative review about publications regarding to the quality of life of children who have Congenital Heart Diseases (CHD).Results: The search resulted in 506 articles in three different data basis using the descriptor: Child, Congenital Heart Disease and Quality of live in English and Spanish language. Among them only 98 filled the inclusion criteria and they were submitted to applications to the exclusion criteria, resulting only in 21 articles, which were completed analyzed, constituting the final sample of 6 studies that were related to the content. Conclusion: The studies made to evaluated the quality of life of children with CHD show inconclusive results, possibly because of the methodological and conceptual differences in the researches.