Health-related quality of life: gender differences in childhood and adolescence.
OBJECTIVE
To assess whether gender and age differences can be found in different aspects of health-related quality of life (HRQOL) of children and adolescents, and to what extent these results correspond to theoretical and empirical findings from developmental psychology.


METHODS
A newly developed HRQOL questionnaire was completed by 3,710 youths aged nine to 17 years in seven European countries. The "Kidscreen 52" questionnaire consists of 10 scales operationalising aspects of the physical, psychological and social dimensions of HRQOL. With the use of ANOVA and effect sizes, the influence of age and gender on aspects of HRQOL is reported.


RESULTS
Children report a very good quality of life largely independent of gender. After 12 years, HRQOL decreases in the majority of aspects. In the physical and psychological dimensions, a stronger decrease is found for females than for males.


CONCLUSIONS
Children have higher HRQOL than adolescents in many aspects. With increasing age, HRQOL is frequently worse for females than for males. Examination of the individual aspects leads to a differentiation of the results with relevance for public health.
Bisegger
Corinna
C
Departement of Social and Preventive Medicine, Social and Behavioural Health Research, University of Berne, Switzerland. bisegger@ispm.unibe.ch
Cloetta
Bernhard
B
von Rueden
Ursula
U
Abel
Thomas
T
Ravens-Sieberer
Ulrike
U
D000293:Adolescent; D041923:Adolescent Development; D000367:Age Factors; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development; D004644:Emotions; D005060:Europe; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D010865:Pilot Projects; D011788:Quality of Life; D012649:Self Concept; D012737:Sex Factors; D012944:Social Support; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires