title: Health related quality of life of obese adolescents in Kuwait.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Obesity impairs health related quality of life (HRQL) in adolescents, but most evidence in this area has mostly come from western societies. We wanted to test the hypothesis that obesity impairs HRQL in Kuwaiti adolescents, and to test for differences in HRQL assessed by self-report and parent-proxy report.
  
  
  METHODS
  In 500 Kuwaiti 10-14 year olds HRQL was assessed using the Peds QL(TM) with both adolescent self-reports (n = 500) and parent-proxy reports (n = 374).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Obesity was not significantly associated with HRQL in regression analysis. In a paired comparison of 98 pairs of obese adolescents vs. 98 healthy weight peers, impairment of HRQL reached significance only for physical score (95% CI = -1.5, -9.4), not for psychosocial score or total score. In a paired comparison of parent-proxy vs. self-reports for the obese adolescents, total score (95% CI = -4.9, -10.9), physical score (95% CI = -3.2, -11.0), and psychosocial score (95% CI = -4.2, -10.8) were all significantly lower in the parent reports.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Obesity is not associated with marked impairment of HRQL in adolescents in Kuwait, in contrast to studies in western societies. This may reflect cultural differences in attitudes towards obesity.
authors.forename: Shurooq A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Boodai
authors.forename: John J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Reilly
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D007730:Kuwait / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D009765:Obesity / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology*; D011788:Quality of Life; D057566:Self Report; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires