title: Health related quality of life of immigrant children: towards a new pattern in Germany?
abstract: BACKGROUND
  To study Health related quality of life (HRQoL) of a sample of kindergarten children with migration background.
  
  
  METHODS
  Five kindergartens in Frankfurt/Main and Darmstadt (Germany) participated. HRQoL was measured with the Kiddy-KINDL (KK) in 3 to 5 year old children. We examined the associations of HRQoL with socio-demographic variables, positive development and resilience, socio-emotional and motor development. Linear regression models were applied to examine differences in HRQoL between migrant and native-born German children.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The response rate was 90.5% (N = 283). The children had predominantly migrant background (81.35%). Perceived health was slightly higher in migrants (69.85, SD 17.00) compared to native-born German children (68.33, SD 17.31, p > 0.05), even though migrant children were characterized by a lower socio-economic status (p < 0.01).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Results suggest that HRQoL at early ages in our study exhibits a different pattern than reported previously in studies among older individuals. We attribute the discrepancy partly to a possible changing pattern of migration in Europe with more migrants capable to migrate with healthy profiles, and to the age of our population. Our findings underscore the need to study the life course trajectory of HRQoL among young immigrants and replication in representative samples.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Psychology and Medical Sociology, University Medical Center, Georg-August-University, Göttingen, Germany. ester.villalonga@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Ester
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Villalonga-Olives
authors.forename: Nicole
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: von Steinbüchel
authors.forename: Claudia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Witte
authors.forename: Erich
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Kasten
authors.forename: Ichiro
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Kawachi
authors.forename: Christiane
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Kiese-Himmel
mesh_terms: D002675:Child, Preschool; D054242:Emigrants and Immigrants; D005006:Ethnicity; D005260:Female; D005858:Germany / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011788:Quality of Life; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012572:School Health Services / Q000639:trends; D012574:Schools; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors
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