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Associations between scores of psychosomatic health symptoms and health-related quality of life in children and adolescents

BACKGROUND: The aims of the present study are to investigate whether there are differences in health-related quality of life (HRQoL) between girls and boys in two different age groups, to study how much of children’s variance in HRQoL can be explained by common psychosomatic health symptoms, and to...

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Autores principales: Svedberg, Pia, Eriksson, Mårten, Boman, Eva
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2013
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3831247/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24148880
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1477-7525-11-176
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author Svedberg, Pia
Eriksson, Mårten
Boman, Eva
author_facet Svedberg, Pia
Eriksson, Mårten
Boman, Eva
author_sort Svedberg, Pia
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: The aims of the present study are to investigate whether there are differences in health-related quality of life (HRQoL) between girls and boys in two different age groups, to study how much of children’s variance in HRQoL can be explained by common psychosomatic health symptoms, and to examine whether the same set of psychosomatic symptoms can explain differences in HRQoL, both between girls and boys and between older and younger school children. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted of 253 children, 99 of ages 11–12 years (n=51 girls, n=48 boys) and 154 of ages 15–16 years (n=82 girls, n=72 boys), in Swedish schools. The KIDSCREEN-52 instrument, which covers 10 dimensions of HRQoL and additional questions about psychosomatic health symptoms, were used. Analyses of variance were conducted to investigate differences between the genders and age groups, and in interaction effects on the KIDSCREEN-52 dimensions. Regression analyses were used to investigate the impacts of psychosomatic symptoms on gender and age group differences in HRQoL. RESULTS: Boys rated themselves higher than girls on the KIDSCREEN dimensions: physical and psychological well-being, moods and emotions, self-perception, and autonomy. Main effects of age group were found for physical well-being, psychological well-being, moods and emotions, self-perception, autonomy, and school environment, where younger children rated their HRQoL more highly than those aged 15–16 years. Girls rated their moods and emotions dramatically lower than boys in the older age group, but the ratings of emotional status were more similar between genders at younger ages. Psychosomatic symptoms explained between 27% and 50% of the variance in the children’s HRQoL. Sleeping difficulties were a common problem for both girls and boys. Depression and concentration difficulties were particularly associated with HRQoL among girls whereas stomach aches were associated with HRQoL among boys. CONCLUSIONS: Girls and adolescents experience poorer HRQoL than boys and younger children, but having psychosomatic symptoms seem to explain a substantial part of the variation. Strategies to promote health among school children, in particular to alleviate sleep problems among all children, depression and concentration difficulties among girls, and stomach aches among boys, are of great importance.
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spelling pubmed-38312472013-11-19 Associations between scores of psychosomatic health symptoms and health-related quality of life in children and adolescents Svedberg, Pia Eriksson, Mårten Boman, Eva Health Qual Life Outcomes Research BACKGROUND: The aims of the present study are to investigate whether there are differences in health-related quality of life (HRQoL) between girls and boys in two different age groups, to study how much of children’s variance in HRQoL can be explained by common psychosomatic health symptoms, and to examine whether the same set of psychosomatic symptoms can explain differences in HRQoL, both between girls and boys and between older and younger school children. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted of 253 children, 99 of ages 11–12 years (n=51 girls, n=48 boys) and 154 of ages 15–16 years (n=82 girls, n=72 boys), in Swedish schools. The KIDSCREEN-52 instrument, which covers 10 dimensions of HRQoL and additional questions about psychosomatic health symptoms, were used. Analyses of variance were conducted to investigate differences between the genders and age groups, and in interaction effects on the KIDSCREEN-52 dimensions. Regression analyses were used to investigate the impacts of psychosomatic symptoms on gender and age group differences in HRQoL. RESULTS: Boys rated themselves higher than girls on the KIDSCREEN dimensions: physical and psychological well-being, moods and emotions, self-perception, and autonomy. Main effects of age group were found for physical well-being, psychological well-being, moods and emotions, self-perception, autonomy, and school environment, where younger children rated their HRQoL more highly than those aged 15–16 years. Girls rated their moods and emotions dramatically lower than boys in the older age group, but the ratings of emotional status were more similar between genders at younger ages. Psychosomatic symptoms explained between 27% and 50% of the variance in the children’s HRQoL. Sleeping difficulties were a common problem for both girls and boys. Depression and concentration difficulties were particularly associated with HRQoL among girls whereas stomach aches were associated with HRQoL among boys. CONCLUSIONS: Girls and adolescents experience poorer HRQoL than boys and younger children, but having psychosomatic symptoms seem to explain a substantial part of the variation. Strategies to promote health among school children, in particular to alleviate sleep problems among all children, depression and concentration difficulties among girls, and stomach aches among boys, are of great importance. BioMed Central 2013-10-23 /pmc/articles/PMC3831247/ /pubmed/24148880 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1477-7525-11-176 Text en Copyright © 2013 Svedberg et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research
Svedberg, Pia
Eriksson, Mårten
Boman, Eva
Associations between scores of psychosomatic health symptoms and health-related quality of life in children and adolescents
title Associations between scores of psychosomatic health symptoms and health-related quality of life in children and adolescents
title_full Associations between scores of psychosomatic health symptoms and health-related quality of life in children and adolescents
title_fullStr Associations between scores of psychosomatic health symptoms and health-related quality of life in children and adolescents
title_full_unstemmed Associations between scores of psychosomatic health symptoms and health-related quality of life in children and adolescents
title_short Associations between scores of psychosomatic health symptoms and health-related quality of life in children and adolescents
title_sort associations between scores of psychosomatic health symptoms and health-related quality of life in children and adolescents
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3831247/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24148880
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1477-7525-11-176
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