Abstract
The objective of the present study was to determine the association between lifestyle parameters (i.e., physical activity (PA) level, screen time (ST), fitness and food habits) and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in ethnic ascendant schoolchildren (i.e., Mapuche ascendant). This cross-sectional study included 619 schoolchildren with ethnic (EA; n = 234, 11.6 ± 1.0 years) and non-ethnicity ascendant (NEA; n = 383, 11.7 ± 1.1 years) from Araucanía, Chile. HRQoL and lifestyle were measured using a standard questionnaire and cardiometabolic markers (body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), waist-to-height ratio (WtHR), systolic (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP)) and cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) were additionally included. In the EA schoolchildren, the HRQoL reported association with CRF adjusted by age and sex (β; 0.12, p = 0.018) and non-adjusted with foods habits (β; 0.11, p = 0.034). By contrast, ST adjusted by age and sex presented an inverse association with HRQoL (β; −2.70, p < 0.001). EA schoolchildren showed low HRQoL (p = 0.002), low nutritional level (p = 0.002) and low CRF (p < 0.001) than NEA peers. Moreover, children’s ethnic presence showed an association with low nutritional levels (odd ratio (OR): 3.28, p = 0.002) and ST 5 h/day (OR: 5.34, p = 0.003). In conclusion, in the present study, EA schoolchildren reported lower HRQoL than NEA schoolchildren, which could be explained by the lifestyle patterns such as a low nutritional level and more ST exposure.
Highlights
For many decades, obesity has been considered a pandemic and has been reported in European [1]Asians [2] and Amerindian populations [3]
Modern and interesting items are reported by the health-related quality of life (HRQoL) indicators in schoolchildren [4]
In a prospective study cohort of HRQoL in African, Latin and European ascendants adolescents, marked ethnic disparities were observed across all measures of HRQoL and health status, favoring European and disfavoring African ascendants; the authors concluded that these ethnic disparities could be explained by socioeconomic status and other contextual family variables [31]
Summary
Obesity has been considered a pandemic and has been reported in European [1]Asians [2] and Amerindian populations [3]. Obesity has been considered a pandemic and has been reported in European [1]. In order to prevent early cardiometabolic diseases related to obesity at early ages, such as at school, there is a need to regularly examine statistical predictors of health that report qualitative lifestyle outcomes (i.e., healthy/unhealthy behaviors) in addition to strict clinical outcomes. Modern and interesting items are reported by the health-related quality of life (HRQoL) indicators in schoolchildren [4]. Due to the multiple and complex biological/environmental determinants of health and considering that these are difficult to interpret together, the inclusion and measurement of HRQoL markers are relevant for a future prediction and better health understanding into the academic wellbeing of the school environment
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