Short Stature and Psychological Well-being
The first aim of the present study is to evaluate the psychological impact of the condition of short stature (family) in a sample of Italian children, comparing them with subjects of normal stature, measuring their levels of psychological well-being, psychological distress, quality of health-related life and any behavioral issues. The secondary objective is to study the psychological impact evaluated with the tests described below (see methods section) in children with GH deficiency and the effects of replacement therapy (6 months) with GH from recombinant DNA.
- EligibilityCriteria: Inclusion Criteria: age between 6 and 14 years, of both sexes  35 with familiar short stature (height < 3rd centile according to the Italian reference standards) and their caregivers of reference. Children with familial short stature are characterized by: short stature in other members of the family group, not necessarily the parents, harmonious appearance, without particular clinical signs and normal pubertal development, parallel growth curve below the 3rd centile, bone age corresponding to chronological age. 35 with normal height (height > 25th centile), aged between 6 and 14 years, of normal weight, and their caregivers of reference 10 children, aged between 6 and 14 years, of both sexes, affected by isolated GH deficiency according to the criteria established by AIFA note 39 for this pathology (short stature: ≤ -3 SD or ≤ -2 SD and growth velocity/year ≤ -1.0 SD for age and sex evaluated at least 6 months apart and peak GH at two different pharmacological stimulus tests < 8 ng/ml) and their caregivers of reference  Exclusion Criteria:  children and teenagers with obesity (BMI > 97th centile) are excluded (for the subgroups with familiar short stature or normal height children and teenagers with the presence of organic pathologies at the hypothalamic-pituitary level (assessed by performing brain MRI) (for the subgroup with growth hormone deficiency) - HealthyVolunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers - Gender: All - MinimumAge: 6 Years - MaximumAge: 14 Years - StdAgeList: Child - StudyPopulation: 35 children with familiar short stature, 35 with normal height (height > 25th centile), and 10 with growth hormone deficiency and their caregivers of reference (see above the description of the diagnostic criteria). - SamplingMethod: Probability Sample