Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Mar 3;15(5):1264.
doi: 10.3390/nu15051264.

Elementary School-Aged Children's and Parents' Report of Health-Related Quality of Life and Relationships with Lifestyle Measures: A Cross-Sectional Study

Soili Alanne  1   2 , Ella Koivuniemi  2   3 , Eliisa Löyttyniemi  4 , Kirsi Laitinen  2   3   5
Affiliations

Elementary School-Aged Children's and Parents' Report of Health-Related Quality of Life and Relationships with Lifestyle Measures: A Cross-Sectional Study

Soili Alanne et al. Nutrients. .

Abstract

Supporting a child's health-promoting lifestyle is an investment in their future health and health-related quality of life (HRQoL). Particularly children with overweight and obesity may be at an increased risk of a poor HRQoL. Currently, a comprehensive evaluation of lifestyle factors and age in relation to HRQoL in healthy children and, further, separate child and parental proxy-reports of HRQoL are lacking. The aims of this cross-sectional study in Finland are to compare healthy elementary school-aged children's and parents' reports of the child's HRQoL, and to view them in relation to lifestyle markers. The HRQoL was measured with Pediatric Quality of Life InventoryTM 4.0, and the following lifestyle markers: leisure-time physical activity as MET, diet quality via a validated index (ES-CIDQ), sleeping time and screen time by questionnaires. Furthermore, age and BMI were recorded. Data were obtained from 270 primary school-aged children (6-13 years). Female gender, the child's older age (8-13 years), high physical activity level and less screen time were strong predictors of a higher HRQoL in both the child's and parental proxy-reports. Means to promote healthy lifestyles should be particularly targeted to young children, especially boys, and new ways to promote physical activity and other forms of free-time activities should be sought.

Keywords: Pediatric Quality of Life InventoryTM 4.0; children; diet quality; health-related-quality of life; physical activity.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript; or in the decision to publish the results.

References

    1. Current Care Guidelines Obesity in Children, Adolescents and Adults. Working Group Appointed by the Finnish Medical Society Duodecim, the Finnish Association for the Study of Obesity, the Finnish Paediatric Society. [(accessed on 10 January 2023)]. Available online: https://www.kaypahoito.fi/en/ccs00131.
    1. Abarca-Gómez L., Abdeen Z.A., Hamid Z.A., Abu-Rmeileh N.M., Acosta-Cazares B., Acuin C., Adams R.J., Aekplakorn W., Afsana K., Aguilar-Salinas C.A., et al. Worldwide Trends in Body-Mass Index, Underweight, Overweight, and Obesity from 1975 to 2016: A Pooled Analysis of 2416 Population-Based Measurement Studies in 128·9 Million Children, Adolescents, and Adults. Lancet. 2017;390:2627–2642. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(17)32129-3. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Jääskeläinen S., Mäki P., Mölläri K., Mäntymaa P. Child and Adolescent Overweight and Obesity 2019 in Every Four Boys and Almost One in Every Five Girls Is or Obese. Stat. Rep. 2020;31:1–22.
    1. Revicki D.A., Osoba D., Fairclough D., Barofsky I., Berzon R., Leidy N.K., Rothman M. Recommendations on Health-Related Quality of Life Research to Support Labeling and Promotional Claims in the United States. Qual. Life Res. 2000;9:887–900. doi: 10.1023/A:1008996223999. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Varni J.W., Limbers C.A., Burwinkle T.M. How Young Can Children Reliably and Validly Self-Report Their Health-Related Quality of Life?: An Analysis of 8591 Children across Age Subgroups with the PedsQLTM 4.0 Generic Core Scales. Health Qual. Life Outcomes. 2007;5:1. doi: 10.1186/1477-7525-5-1. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources