Abstract:

Background:
After diagnosis of diabetes, the child / adolescent and family are faced with the onset of a chronic disease that requires a monitoring of the health care team, for that adaptation to this new reality, that allows the child / adolescent reaches the best level of health and a good quality of life. Preparing the child and family for autonomy in providing all the necessary care is one of the main functions of the nurse through therapeutic education, being crucial the establishment of an empathic relationship. The information and incentive directed to children must be appropriate to their cognitive stage of development and the establishment of a constructive relationship with the child and family, and their satisfaction with the care service, can determine the success of adherence to the treatment and the complete integration in the normal school life.

Objectives:
To characterize the satisfaction with therapeutic education, identify the variables that interfere with the child's perception in their quality of life and correlate satisfaction with therapeutic education and the perception of quality of life.

Methods:
A quantitative, cross sectional, descriptive and correlational study was performed on a non-probabilistic sample composed of 135 children/adolescents with diabetes. A survey comprising socio-demographic and clinical characterization questions was used, the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory (PedsQL 4.0) Portuguese version (Lima, Guerra, & Lemos, 2009) as well an adaptation of the Survey on the Patient Satisfaction with the Therapeutic Education in Diabetes (Chaves et al, 2009).

Results:
The sample had between 8 and 18 years old, average 13/45 years (SD = 2.83). Most children / adolescents attending the 2nd and 3rd cycle of basic education (55.6%), 31.1% secondary education / professional and only 13.3% attend the 1st cycle of basic education. Females had higher mean scores in all subscales of satisfaction with therapeutic education. Children / adolescents who were aged <= 12 and > = 15 years old and who feel satisfied with the therapeutic education tend to perceive their quality of life as reasonable. There was no statistically significance between sex and the quality of life. There was no statistically association between sex and the quality of life (Chi-square= 4.453, p =0.108). From the analysis of the trajectories of the various variables studied and its relationship to quality of life can be seen that the dimension "relationship/communication" of the therapeutic education is the one with the highest predictive power implying the Physical, Emotional and Social functioning in quality of life. The dimension "Initial Assessment" in therapeutic education and age have predictive value, explaining 19% of the variation observed in the Functioning at School (R2 = 0,19). Age and the dimension "relationship/communication" established in the therapeutic education had predictive value in global good perception of quality of life.

Conclusion:
Therapeutic education carried out by the nursing staff, especially the relationship/ communication established with the child / adolescent proved be fundamental in the positive perception of their quality of life.

Keywords:

Therapeutic education, Quality of life perception, Child/adolescent, Type 1 diabetes.