title: Quality of life in adolescents with hearing deficiencies and visual impairments.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The term quality of life (in Portuguese, Qualidade de Vida; QV) has been expanded and modified over the years and has come to signify social development in terms of education, health, and leisure as well as economic issues.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To analyze the perception of QV in adolescents with hearing and visual impairments and the effects of socio-demographic characteristics on the domains of QV.
  
  
  METHODS
  This descriptive series study comprised 42 adolescents aged 10 to 19 years who were students at Recife's state schools. The World Health Organization Quality of Life-Abbreviated questionnaire was used to evaluate QV. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and the Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis tests with a significance level of p < 0.05.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The global perception of QV was higher among adolescents with visual impairments than among those with hearing impairments. Among the individual components of QV, the environment domain garnered the lowest scores independent of the type of impairment. The subjects with visual impairments reported higher scores for social relationships, while the psychological domain scored higher among those with hearing impairments. The students integrated into normal classrooms perceived better QV in the psychological and social relationships domains than did those who sat in special classrooms.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The environmental domain was the worst component of the QV of handicapped adolescents, suggesting a need for greater investments in policies to improve the QV of this population.
authors.affiliation: Physical Educator. Master of Hebiatry.
authors.forename: Vanthauze
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Marques Freire Torres
authors.affiliation: Nurse. Master of Hebiatria.
authors.forename: Christielle
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lidianne Alencar Marinho
authors.affiliation: Graduate in dentistry. Scientific initiation-PIBIC.
authors.forename: Carolina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Gabriela Gomes de Oliveira
authors.affiliation: Dentist. Doctor of Dentistry.
authors.forename: Sandra
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Conceição Maria Vieira
keywords: Adolescent; Hearing Loss; Quality of Life; Visually Impaired Persons