Relationship between obesity and health-related quality of life in children aged 7–8 years

BACKGROUND: The dramatic increase in the prevalence of obesity in developed and developing countries has become a major health care concern. Accordingly, there is growing recognition of the relationship between health-related quality of life (HRQOL) and obesity in the pediatric population. This study aimed to explore the relationship between HRQOL and different indicators of obesity in children aged 7–8 years. METHOD: In total, 182 children participated in this study (mean age 7.71 (0.29) years, 48.91% girls). To assess obesity, an InBody 230 analyzer was used to calculate body mass index (BMI) and body fat percentage (BFP). The proxy version of the KIDSCREEN-27 questionnaire was used to assess HRQOL. RESULTS: Among boys, 17.2% were overweight and 4.3% were obese according to BMI, while in terms of body fat percentage (BFP), the corresponding percentages were 12.9 and 9.7%, respectively. Among girls, the prevalence of overweight and obesity was 11.2 and 9.0% by BMI and 10.1 and 7.9% in terms of BFP, respectively. The analysis of BFP showed a significantly higher score in normal weight boys than in obese boys in the Social Support & Peers domains (KW H-test = 10.472, p = 0.03), while in girls, there were no significant differences between weight categories and any HRQOL dimensions. CONCLUSION: Obesity at 7–8 years of age could negatively affect some HRQOL domains; in particular, obese boys may have low social support and peer functioning.