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. 2019 Jul 19;11(7):1650.
doi: 10.3390/nu11071650.

Quality of Life in Chronic Ketogenic Diet Treatment: The GLUT1DS Population Perspective

Costanza Varesio  1   2 , Ludovica Pasca  1   2 , Stefano Parravicini  1   2 , Martina Paola Zanaboni  1 , Elena Ballante  3   4 , Silvia Masnada  1   2 , Cinzia Ferraris  5 , Simona Bertoli  6 , Anna Tagliabue  5 , Pierangelo Veggiotti  7   8 , Valentina De Giorgis  9
Affiliations

Quality of Life in Chronic Ketogenic Diet Treatment: The GLUT1DS Population Perspective

Costanza Varesio et al. Nutrients. .

Abstract

Background: Glucose transporter type 1 deficiency syndrome (GLUT1DS) is a rare, genetically determined neurological disorder, for which Ketogenic Diet (KD) represents the gold standard life-long treatment. The aim of this study is to investigate health related quality of life in a well characterized cohort of patients affected by GLUT1DS treated with KD, evaluating factors that can influence patients' and parents' quality of life perception.

Methods: This is a double center exploratory research study. A postal survey with auto-administrable questionnaires was conducted among 17 subjects (aged 3-22 years) with diagnosis of GLUT1DS, receiving a stable KD treatment for more than 1 year. The Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory (PedsQL) 4.0 Generic Core Scales was adopted. Clinical variables analyzed in relation to quality of life were frequency of epileptic seizures and movement disorder since KD introduction, presence of intellectual disability (ID), and KD ratio.

Results: Quality of life global scores were impaired both in parents' and children's perspectives, with a significant concordance. Taking into consideration subscales, the average was 64.17 (range 10-100) for physical functioning, 74.23 (range 30-100) for emotional functioning, 62.64 (range 10-100) for social functioning, and 56 (range 15-92) for school functioning.

Conclusions: In patients with GLUT1DS the quality of life perception is comparable to that of other patients with chronic disease. In our sample, the presence of movement disorder seems to be a crucial element in quality of life perception.

Keywords: GLUT1 deficiency syndrome; PedsQol 4.0; health related quality of life; ketogenic diet treatment.

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Conflict of interest statement

Prof. Veggiotti Pierangelo has received speaker’s fee from Eisai, Nutricia and Dr. Schär SPA. Dr. De Giorgis Valentina has received speaker’s fee from Eisai. The remaining authors have no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Boxplots representing the distribution of subscores of parents (a) and patients (b).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Relationship between parents’ and patients’ scores, along with the line of perfect concordance.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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