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. 2015 May 1;10(5):e0125083.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0125083. eCollection 2015.

Determinants of health-related quality of life in school-aged children: a general population study in the Netherlands

Marieke Houben-van Herten  1 , Guannan Bai  2 , Esther Hafkamp  2 , Jeanne M Landgraf  3 , Hein Raat  2
Affiliations

Determinants of health-related quality of life in school-aged children: a general population study in the Netherlands

Marieke Houben-van Herten et al. PLoS One. .

Erratum in

Abstract

Background: Health related quality of life is the functional effect of a medical condition and/or its therapy upon a patient, and as such is particularly suitable for describing the general health of children. The objective of this study was to identify and confirm potential determinants of health-related quality of life in children aged 4-11 years in the general population in the Netherlands. Understanding such determinants may provide insights into more targeted public health policy.

Methods: As part of a population based cross sectional study, the Child Health Questionnaire (CHQ) Parental Form 28 was used to measure health-related quality of life in school-aged children in a general population sample. Parents of 10,651 children aged 4-11 years were interviewed from January 2001 to December 2009.

Results: Multivariate and regression analyses demonstrated a declined CHQ Physical Summary score for children who had >1 conditions, disorders or acute health complaints and who were greater consumers of healthcare; children with a non-western immigrant background; and children whose parents did not work. Lower CHQ Psychosocial Summary score was reported for children who had >1 conditions, disorders or acute health complaints, boys, children of single parents and obese children.

Conclusion: The best predictors of health-related quality of life are variables that describe use of health care and the number of disorders and health complaints. Nonetheless, a number of demographic, socio-economic and family/environmental determinants contribute to a child's health-related quality of life as well.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: Ms. Landgraf is the vice president and chief scientific officer at HealthActCHQ, Inc., which owns the intellectual property rights to the CHQ. Researcher interested in obtaining approval for limited use licensure of HACHQ's intellectual property - the surveys, translations, and scoring algorithms—can contact HealthActCHQ, Inc. Home page: (http://www.healthactchq.com/) or direct to registration: (http://www.healthactchq.com/registration.php). HealthActCHQ, Inc. does not hold any patents/patent applications relating to material pertinent to this article. This does not alter the authors' adherence to all the PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials. There are no further patents, products in development or marketed products to declare.

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