Quality of Life Is Influenced by Body Weight, Education, and Family Income in Adolescents with Chronic Diseases

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the health-related quality of life (HRQoL) of adolescents diagnosed with different chronic conditions and to identify demographic, socioeconomic, and health-status outcomes associated with the impairment in HRQoL. STUDY DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. METHODS: We evaluated 276 adolescents (50.7% male) aged 14 ± 2 years that were assisted by healthcare public service and diagnosed with cancer (CA), type 1 diabetes mellitus (DM1), overweight (OW), asthma (AS), and no chronic health condition—control group (CG). Adolescents and parent-proxy completed age-appropriate self-report and/or parent-proxy report on generic HRQoL measures using PedsQL™. RESULTS: Adolescents with CA had lower overall HRQoL as well as poorer scores in all dimensions than either healthy participants or other chronic disease sufferers. HRQoL scores reported by parent-proxy were similar to those reported by adolescents across all chronic diseases. CG members reported better scores in all dimensions. Maternal education, family income, and marital status of parents were correlated with HRQoL scores in all dimensions. The risk of having an affected HRQoL score was higher in adolescents with CA than in adolescents with other chronic diseases. CONCLUSIONS: The likelihood of cancer affecting HRQoL was higher when compared to other chronic diseases, and the OW group had a worse overall score compared to CG. Adolescents with CA, AS, and OW reported worse school dimensions when compared to healthy adolescents. The education of adolescents and their parent-proxy, body weight, and family income influence the dimensions of HRQoL in adolescents with chronic diseases.