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Quality of Life Reported by Pre-School Children and their Primary Caregivers

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Abstract

This study examines the association between perceptions of primary caregivers (parent-report) and children (self-report) on their quality of life (QoL) at pre-school age. We also aimed to analyze the health, sociodemographic, and developmental predictors that better explain their QoL. The study comprised 83 healthy children, who attended public kindergarten, with a mean of five years of age, as well as their primary caregivers. The Autoquestionnaire Qualité de Vie Enfant Imagé-AUQEI assessed the self-reported QoL and the Child Health Questionnaire-50 Parent Form-CHQ-PF50 evaluated the parent-reported QoL. Additionally, the Denver II test assessed the child psychomotor development. The multivariate analysis was performed to identify predictive models of QoL reported by parents and children. The significance level was 5%. Fifty children (72%) reported satisfactory QoL according to their self-report (AUQEI). The primary caregivers also reported good QoL in their children (mean scores >70 in all CHQ-PF50 domains). The correlations between the AUQEI and CHQPF50 scores were weak and not significant. There was no significant prediction model of self-reported QoL. However, the worst parent-reported levels of QoL were predicted by female gender, higher frequency of hospitalization, medication use, personal-social development at risk, and school difficulties. The perceptions of the primary caregivers and the children about their QoL at preschool age were not associated. The health, sociodemographic, and developmental indicators were related in a different way with each source of information. None of these indicators explained the self-reported QoL, whereas current health and development indicators predicted the parent-reported QoL.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) for financial support awarded to the authors (Grant Number 142168/2014-9 for Vieira MEB and Grant for productive researcher for Linhares MBM).

Funding

This study was funded by National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq). The funder had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physiotherapy and Physical Education, State University of Goiás, Goiânia, Brazil

    Martina Estevam Brom Vieira & Cibelle Kayenne Martins Roberto Formiga

  2. Department of Neurosciences and Behavioral Sciences, Ribeirão Preto Medical School, University of São Paulo, Avenida Tenente Catão Roxo, 2650 – Prédio da Saúde Mental – Faculdade de Medicina de Ribeirão Preto – USP, Campus Universitário Monte Alegre, CEP: 14051-140, Ribeirão Preto, SP, Brazil

    Martina Estevam Brom Vieira & Maria Beatriz Martins Linhares

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  1. Martina Estevam Brom Vieira
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Correspondence to Maria Beatriz Martins Linhares.

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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. This study protocol was approved by the Ethics Committee. Informed and free consent was obtained from all parents.

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Vieira, M.E.B., Formiga, C.K.M.R. & Linhares, M.B.M. Quality of Life Reported by Pre-School Children and their Primary Caregivers. Child Ind Res 11, 1967–1982 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12187-017-9518-z

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