Quality of life of obese preschoolers

• Darya N. Lir
• Aleksandr Ya. Perevalov
• Tat’yana A. Mishukova

Abstract

The prevalence of obesity in childhood and adolescence tends to increase, and its presence is associated with a change in the quality of life (QOL). Nevertheless, the question of the influence of obesity on the QOL of Russian children in preschool years remains unexplored, while this age refers to the period of obesity manifestation.

Purpose of the study - to examine the quality of life of preschool children with obesity and determine the optimal methods of disease preventing.

Material and methods. A retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted to examine the QOL of preschool children. The test group included children with primary exogenous (alimentary) obesity of grade 1, who underwent outpatient treatment in a polyclinic (n=40, 43% girls). The control group included children of I-II health categories with body mass index (BMI) of the 25-85^th percentile (n=40, 50% girls). The diagnosis was verified based on the BMI, considering gender and age ≥95 percentile and Z-score ranging from +2.0 to +2.5. We assessed QOL based on the general PedsQL 4.0 questionnaire adapted for Russian-speaking users. As a result, we received the characteristics of physical (PF), emotional (EF), social (SF), and role (RF) functioning in the presence of the disease and without it. When categorizing the QOL level, we used the following intervals: 100 to 91 points - high level of QOL, 90 to 81 - medium level, 80 to 71 - low level, less than 70 - very low level.

Results. It was found out that the average value of the generalized QOL indicator according to self-reports in the group of obese children was 20.3% lower (p<0.01) than in the group of healthy children and did not exceed 70 points, which corresponded to a very low QOL level. The absolute difference between groups exceeds the criterion of clinical significance. In the course of detailed analysis, the lowest values were obtained for EF indicators (65.3±21.6 points) with a relative difference in the control group of up to 21.6% (p<0.01). The emotional component was closely related to SF (r=0.63, р<0.01), PF (r=0.67, р<0.01) and RF (r=0.61, р<0.01). The parents of the children with obesity assessed their QOL at a very low level (on the average at 64.4±19.2 points), which was 21.5% lower (p<0.01) than the same indicator according to the estimates given by the parents of healthy children.

Conclusion. Therefore, preschool children with obesity are aware of the limitations associated with the disease and point out a particularly low level of functioning, primarily emotional. The QOL indicators of the children with obesity were 19-22% lower than that of their healthy peers. The opinions of the parents were consistent with the self-reports the children provided. Due to the rapid increase in obesity among children, it is advisable to promote systematic educational programs on healthy eating developed as part of the national project for disease prevention.

Keywords:quality of life, obesity, preschool age, educational programs, healthy eating

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