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. 2020 Dec:119:105595.
doi: 10.1016/j.childyouth.2020.105595. Epub 2020 Oct 13.

The effect of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on health-related quality of life in children

Derya Adıbelli  1 , Adem Sümen  1
Affiliations

The effect of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on health-related quality of life in children

Derya Adıbelli et al. Child Youth Serv Rev. 2020 Dec.

Abstract

Introduction: The study was conducted to examine the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on health-related quality of life in children.

Materials and methods: The study was conducted with 597 children aged 7-13 and their parents using the online data collection tool via social media. Socio-demographic form and Generic Health-related Quality of Life Questionnaire for Children (Kid-KINDL) were used to collect the data. SPSS 23.0 program, descriptive statistics, Mann-Whitney U test and Kruskal-Wallis variance analysis were used to evaluate the data.

Results: During the pandemic, 41.5% of the parents stated that their child gained weight, tendency to sleep of 34.2% and tendency to use the Internet of 69.3% increased. The average self-reported quality of life score of the children was found to be 73.91 ± 8.44. The self-esteem sub-dimension score of the children whose tendency to sleep increased during the pandemic (p < 0.05); and the physical well-being (p < 0.001), emotional well-being (p < 0.001), self-esteem (p < 0.001), family (p < 0.01), school (p < 0.05) sub-dimensions and total (p < 0.05) score averages of the children whose tendency to use the Internet were found to be lower. The emotional well-being, family and friends sub-dimensions as well as total average scores of the children of the parents who feel fear/anxiety about coronavirus becoming a pandemic and who stated that lockdown negatively affected their mental health were found to be lower (p < 0.05).

Conclusion: Although self-reported quality of life scores of children were generally good, parents reported that their children gained weight, tendency to sleep and internet use increased during the pandemic.

Keywords: COVID-19; Child; Coronavirus; Kid-KINDL; Quality of life.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Distribution of total and sub-dimension average scores of Generic Health-related quality of life questionnaire for children (n: 597).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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