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Longitudinal study on health-related quality of life among child and adolescent survivors of the 2008 Sichuan earthquake

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Abstract

Purpose

To longitudinally characterize child survivors’ quality of life after a massive earthquake in low- and middle-income settings.

Methods

Population-based surveys were conducted in the severely affected areas 15 and 36 months after the earthquake, using a multi-stage systematic sampling design.

Results

A total of 596 participants were included in the initial assessment, of which 430 were re-surveyed in the follow-up assessment. For both assessments, means of the PedsQL total and subscale scores fell significantly below the general healthy children (P < 0.05 for all comparisons). Reduction in PedsQL total scores was observed from the initial to the follow-up assessment (82.2 vs. 80.3, P = 0.01). In regression analysis, mental health symptoms were examined as the biggest contributors for PedsQL scores, and girls and older children were found to report lower PedsQL scores than their counterparts.

Conclusions

Health-related quality of life among child and adolescent survivors decreased over time. Besides helping children with identified risk experiences, attention should also be allocated to children without specific traumatic experiences, since the earthquake may have a delayed effect on them.

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Abbreviations

HRQoL:

Health-related quality of life

PedsQL:

Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory™ 4.0

PTSD:

Posttraumatic stress disorder

CPTSD-RI:

Child Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Reaction Index

CDI:

Children’s Depression Inventory

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Acknowledgments

The study was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (71073170/G0308). The sponsor had no role in the design and conduct of the study; collection, management, analysis, and interpretation of the data; and preparation, review, or approval of the manuscript.

Conflict of interests

The authors declare no conflict of interests.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Health Service Management, Second Military Medical University, Shanghai, 200433, China

    Wenhua Tian, Zhaobao Jia, Guangfeng Duan, Ru Chen & Xue Zhang

  2. Department of Psychology, Second Military Medical University, Shanghai, China

    Weizhi Liu & Xiao Pan

  3. Department of Training, Second Military Medical University, Shanghai, China

    Qiang Guo

Authors
  1. Wenhua Tian
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  2. Zhaobao Jia
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  3. Guangfeng Duan
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  4. Weizhi Liu
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  5. Xiao Pan
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  6. Qiang Guo
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  7. Ru Chen
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  8. Xue Zhang
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Wenhua Tian.

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Tian, W., Jia, Z., Duan, G. et al. Longitudinal study on health-related quality of life among child and adolescent survivors of the 2008 Sichuan earthquake. Qual Life Res 22, 745–752 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11136-012-0201-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11136-012-0201-z

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