Health-related quality of life in overweight and nonoverweight black and white adolescents.
OBJECTIVE
To assess the impact of obesity on quality of life (QOL) in black and white adolescents.


METHODS
One hundred ten overweight (body mass index [BMI], 41.7 +/- 8.9 kg/m2) and 34 nonoverweight adolescents (BMI, 20.6 +/- 2.9 kg/m2) and their parents completed measures of QOL.


RESULTS
Overweight was associated with poorer adolescent-reported QOL and parent reports of their children's QOL. Examining groups by weight status and race, overweight whites reported the greatest impairment on Social/Interpersonal, Self-Esteem, and Physical Appearance QOL (all P < .01), whereas parents of overweight blacks reported the poorest General Health Perceptions scores regarding their children. Interactions between BMI z-score and race were detected for Social/Interpersonal, Self-esteem, Daily Living, Self-Efficacy, Self-regard, and Physical Appearance QOL (all P < .05): Higher BMI in whites was associated with greater impairments in QOL than in blacks. Parents reported similar relations for their children.


CONCLUSIONS
According to adolescent and parent reports, overweight is associated with poorer QOL in adolescence, regardless of race; however, compared with overweight white adolescents, blacks report less impairment in QOL. Future research is required to determine whether differences in QOL are predictive of treatment success.
Fallon
Erica M
EM
Unit on Growth and Obesity, Developmental Endocrinology Branch, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, DHHS, Bethesda, Maryland 20892-1103, USA.
Tanofsky-Kraff
Marian
M
Norman
Anne-Caroline
AC
McDuffie
Jennifer R
JR
Taylor
Erica D
ED
Cohen
Marc L
ML
Young-Hyman
Deborah
D
Keil
Margaret
M
Kolotkin
Ronette L
RL
Yanovski
Jack A
JA
D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000293:Adolescent; D001741:Black or African American / Q000523:psychology*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D009765:Obesity / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000523:psychology*; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology*; D012649:Self Concept; D044465:White People / Q000523:psychology*