Seven- to nine-year-old children’s own assessment of health-related quality of life is important in preventing overweight and obesity

Abstract

The aim was to study how, and to what degree, health-related quality of life (HRQOL), as assessed by children and their mothers, was related to overweight and obesity among children aged seven to nine years. Mother-child pairs of 149 non-overweight, 95 overweight and 16 obese children participated. We assessed HRQOL by the children's self-report and parent proxy report module of the PedsQL™ 4.0 Generic Core Scales. We found that non-overweight children scored HRQOL slightly higher than overweight ones but significantly higher than did obese children. The same pattern was seen for the mothers' proxy HRQOL score and mothers in general scored higher than the children did. The results indicate that mothers in general were not sufficiently aware of how overweight and obesity affect their children's HRQOL. The psychosocial dimension of HRQOL was the most important aspect for the children. Thus, there is a need for information of mothers/parents about the impact of overweight and obesity on children's HRQOL. Such intervention by health professionals may among other interventions help to prevent and reduce overweight and obesity among children and thus help to increase the children's HRQOL throughout their lives.

Quality of life in congenital diaphragmatic hernia survivors treated at a non-ECMO centre from 1998 to 2015: a cross-sectional study

“…20 Studies on obese paediatric populations also reported reduced quality of life compared with controls. [21][22][23] The largest dataset on PedsQL scores in Denmark was reported in a recent nationwide study by Kikkenborg et al and revealed no difference between controls and children with post-COVID-19 symptoms. 24 Kikkenborg et al included 38 709 children (aged 4-14 years) during the pandemic.…”

Caregivers’ perceptions of the relationship among weight, health status, and asthma in their children

“…In order to effectively address weight management and asthma, families must be receptive and have insight into their children’s diagnoses. Historically, parents of children with increased weight status and, independently, parents of children with asthma have had limited insight into their child’s health conditions and quality of life (QoL) (Brodsgaard et al, 2016; Carroll et al, 2012; Lundahl et al, 2014; Rietmeijer-Mentink et al, 2013). In a study by Musaad and others, over 90% of the parents of children with a diagnosis of asthma or food allergy and comorbid increased weight status did not accurately perceive their children as either overweight or obese (Musaad et al, 2013).…”