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Differences in health-related quality of life by academic performance in children of the city of Cordoba-Argentina

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of the study was to assess the differences in health-related quality of life (HRQoL) according to academic performance (AP) in children who attend public schools in the city of Cordoba, Argentina.

Methods

Cross-sectional study carried out in a sample of 494 children aged 9–12 years (mean = 9.5; standard deviation [SD] = 0.65; IQR 1) who attended 4th grade of public schools in the city of Córdoba, Argentina in 2014. HRQoL was assessed by self-administration of the KIDSCREEN-52 child version in classroom. AP was established with the final grades in language and mathematics obtained from the school records. Marginal means and SD’s of the HRQoL scores were compared between AP groups by calculating the effect size (ES), and linear mixed effect models were used to evaluate the (independent) association of AP with HRQoL.

Results

Statistically significant differences were found in the psychosocial dimensions of the HRQoL between the AP groups. The main differences in HRQoL between children with very good–excellent grades and those with unsatisfactory AP were found in school environment (ES = 0.69), parent relation and home life (ES = 0.61), autonomy (ES = 0.61), self-perception (ES = 0.49), and social acceptance (ES = 0.48). Children with very good–excellent grades scored better in all of these dimensions.

Conclusions

Children with very good–excellent grades in language and mathematics scored better in the psychosocial domains of HRQoL. AP is an important factor in the analysis of the social and psychological aspects of children’s health. Further research is required to explore more deeply the direction and characteristics of this association.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Rubén López de Neira, Fernanda Palacios and the authorities in the Secretariat of Education, Municipality of Cordoba. Our special thanks to Pablo Ortiz and Cristian Tebé for help with statistical analysis, and Caoimhín Jacob for his reviews of the English translation. We also express our gratitude to the directors, teachers, and staff at the municipal primary schools that helped us to conduct the fieldwork for our study. Finally, thanks to anonymous reviewers for their detailed and helpful comments to the manuscript.

Funding

This study was partially supported by the National Fund for Science and Technology (FONCYT) (Resolución No. 141/13. PICT-2012-1173) and the Secretary of Science and Technology (SECYT) (Res. 313/2016; 1565/2014) of the National University of Cordoba, Argentina.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios sobre Cultura y Sociedad (CIECS), CONICET, Córdoba, Argentina

    Emilse Degoy & Silvina Berra

  2. Centro de Investigación Epidemiológica y en Servicios de Salud (CIESS), Escuela de Salud Pública, Facultad de Ciencias Médicas (FCM), Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Argentina (UNC), Córdoba, Argentina

    Emilse Degoy & Silvina Berra

  3. Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios sobre Cultura y Sociedad (CIECS), CONICET, Avenida Valparaíso s/n, Ciudad Universitaria, CP: 5000, Córdoba, Argentina

    Emilse Degoy

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  1. Emilse Degoy
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Correspondence to Emilse Degoy.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest with respect to the authorship and/or publication of this article.

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed consent

Informed consent was community-based, through meetings with school managers, teachers, and parents. The whole study was approved by the Ethics Committee for Health Research in Child and Adult Health (CIEIS del niño y del adulto—Polo Hospitalario) in April 2012.

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Degoy, E., Berra, S. Differences in health-related quality of life by academic performance in children of the city of Cordoba-Argentina. Qual Life Res 27, 1463–1471 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11136-018-1849-9

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