Quality Of Life Associated With Overweight And Obesity In Primary And Secondary School Students

Objective:To explore the influences of overweight and obesity on quality of life of primary and secondary school students, and to provide scientific basis for improving quality of life of overweight and obesity children.Methods:Four primary schools and four secondary schools were chosen from Liuyang county randomly. All students in the8schools were given physical examinations, overweight and obese students were selected to compose the Overweight Group and the Obesity Group respectively according to the "BMI cut-off values for overweight and obesity for children aged from5to16in China". Same amount of normal weight boys and girls as Overweight Group and Obesity Group in each grade were selected randomly to compose the Normal Group. Children and Adolescents’QOL Scale were self-administered by above-mentioned students (students of grade1to4assisted by their parents to fill out the questionnaire). Two independent sample t-test or One-Way ANOVA were used on mean comparison of quantitative data and univariate analysis; ordinal logistic regression model was used to assess the possible impact of overweight and obesity on quality of life after grading the original QOL scores into five levels.Results:One-Way ANOVAs showed that, among Normal Group, Overweight Group and Obese Group, scores were significantly different of total QOL, Social psychological function domain and its five dimensions (teachers-students relationship, peer relationship, parents-child relationship, learning ability and attitude, self-concept), work attitude dimension, living environment domain and its three dimensions (life convenience, activity opportunity, athletic ability), quality of life satisfaction domain and its self-satisfaction dimension among three groups were significantly different. Bonferroni tests showed that the scores of Normal Group were higher than the other two groups, and there was no significant difference between Overweight Group and Obesity Group.Results of univariate analysis showed:students who are male, younger, who live in city, live with parents, have a separate room, have a computer, whose pocket money is less than5yuan per day, whose parents’ education level is high, whose caregiver’s vocation is state-owned enterprise or foreign enterprise employer have higher QOL.Results of ordinal logistic regression analysis showed that, after eliminating the impacts of above-mentioned factors, obesity was a risk factor of teachers-students relationship (OR=1.885,95%CI:1.187～13.383), peer relation (OR=1.718,95%CI:1.152～12.195), learning ability and attitude (OR=1.560,95%CI:1.103～11.078), self-concept (OR=2.018,95%CI:1.319～14.325), athletic ability (OR=2.974,95%CI:2.221～21.115), self-satisfaction (OR=1.902,95%CI:1.339～13.504), the others (OR=1.418,95%CI:1.044～10.064) and the total QOL (OR=2.529,95%CI:1.706～17.957); overweight was a risk factor of learning ability and attitude (OR=1.483,95%CI:1.026～10.528), self-concept (OR=2.291,95%CI:1.486～16.265), athletic ability (OR=2.160,95%CI:1.560～15.333), and the total QOL (OR=2.098,95%CI:1.369～14.895). Conclusions:Overweight and obesity have negative impacts on many domain of QOL in primary and secondary school students, including teachers-students relationship, peer relationship, learning ability and attitude, self-concept, athletic ability, self-satisfaction, the others and the total QOL, in which the athletic ability is the most seriously damaged field. Targeted health education should be done and appropriate weight reduction measures should be taken.