Perception of health related quality of life in healthy Indian adolescents

Abstract

Background: Adolescence is a time of mental and psychological adjustment. Adolescents also undergo several changes in their perception and behaviour. It is very important for us to evaluate the perception of quality of life among adolescents in order to ensure comprehensive health care. The objective of the study was to measure QOL in each domain namely physical, psychological, social relations and environment using WHO QOL-BREF questionnaire (26 items).Methods: A cross-sectional study was performed at 2 schools involving 1051 healthy adolescents aged 10-19 years. The remaining 1051 children were given the WHO QOL-BREF questionnaire and the self-reported answers were rated as per the who module to identify the domain with lowest QOL in normal healthy adolescents.Results: Out of 1051 enrolled children, 601 were males and 450 were females. The overall scores across each domain was as follows: Domain 1 - 23.57 (Physical), Domain 2 - 21.24 (Psychological), Domain 3 - 1.22 (Social relations) and Domain 4 -28.14 (Environment). The overall scores were highest in domain 4 (Environment) and lowest in domain 3 (Social relations). The difference in scores between all age groups was statistically significant (P<0.000) for Physical, Psychological and social domains.Conclusions: In our study, the adolescents had good perception about their environment, leisurely activities, transport facilities and accessibility and quality of health care. Adolescents had poor perception about their social relations, personal relations and respect from others. There was no significant difference in perception of quality of life between males and females for any of the domains.