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Overweight and its impact on the health-related quality of life in children and adolescents: results from the European KIDSCREEN survey

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Abstract

Purpose

To analyse the impact of overweight on HRQoL in a European sample of children and adolescents.

Methods

Analyses were conducted using data on 17,159 children and adolescents aged 8–18 from 10 European countries (Germany, Spain, France, Netherlands, Austria, United Kingdom, Switzerland, Hungary, Czech Republic and Poland) participating in the KIDSCREEN Health Interview Survey. In the studied sample (N = 13,041), there were slightly more girls (52.6%) than boys (47.4%). Gender- and age-specific cut-offs of Cole et al. (BMJ 320:1240, 2000) were used to define overweight and obesity. The two groups were collapsed into one ‘overweight’ category. HRQoL was assessed on 10 dimensions using the KIDSCREEN-52. Univariate analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was performed for group comparisons (normal weight vs. overweight). Partial eta squared (η 2p ) was used as a measure of effect strength.

Results

Overall, 14.2% (N = 1,849) of the sample was overweight, with prevalence rates ranging between 9.4% in France and 17.6% in Spain. Across all countries, overweight children and adolescents had lower mean HRQoL scores than normal weight children and adolescents. The strongest HRQoL impairments emerged on the physical well-being (η 2p  = 0.012) and self-perception dimensions (η 2p  = 0.021), both P < 0.001.

Conclusions

This is one of the first studies comparing the impact of HRQoL at European level using a generic and internationally valid HRQoL instrument, and the results show that, irrespective of national background, overweight children and adolescents are significantly impaired on their HRQoL, in particular on the physical well-being and the self-perception domain.

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Abbreviations

BMI:

Body mass index

FAS:

Family affluence scale

HRQoL:

Health-related quality of life

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Acknowledgments

The KIDSCREEN Project (www.kidscreen.org) was a cross-national effort centering around the development of a cross-culturally standardized instrument for the assessment of children’s and adolescents’ health-related quality of life. The project was funded by the European Commission, contract No.: QLG-CT-2000–00751/EC 5th Framework-Programme.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychotherapy, and Psychosomatics, Research Unit Child Public Health, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Martinistr. 52, 20246, Hamburg, Germany

    Veronika Ottova, Michael Erhart, Lucia Dettenborn-Betz & Ulrike Ravens-Sieberer

  2. Agency for Health Information, Assessment and Quality, Carrer de Roc Boronat, 81-95 (2na planta), 08005, Barcelona, Spain

    Luis Rajmil

  3. Health Services Research Unit, IMIM-Hospital del Mar Doctor Aiguader, 88, 08003, Barcelona, Spain

    Luis Rajmil

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  1. Veronika Ottova
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Correspondence to Veronika Ottova.

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Ottova, V., Erhart, M., Rajmil, L. et al. Overweight and its impact on the health-related quality of life in children and adolescents: results from the European KIDSCREEN survey. Qual Life Res 21, 59–69 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11136-011-9922-7

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