title: Health-related quality of life in a sample of Australian adolescents: gender and age comparison.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The primary purpose of this study was to profile the health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in a sample of secondary school-aged children in Australia. The secondary purpose was to contribute to the international literature on the HRQoL of adolescents using the KIDSCREEN instrument.
  
  
  METHODS
  The KIDSCREEN-27 Questionnaire was completed by 1111 adolescents aged between 11 and 17 from six Australian secondary schools. MANCOVA analysis was employed to examine age and gender differences.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Over 70 % of participants reported high levels of HRQoL across all five dimensions. Age patterns were identified with younger adolescents reporting greater HRQoL than older adolescents. Similarly, gender differences were noted with male adolescents reporting higher scores than female adolescents on three out of five dimensions of HRQoL.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This is the first study to measure HRQoL in Australian adolescents using the KIDSCREEN instrument. Consistent with previous research, gender and age differences were found across most dimensions of HRQoL. These results highlight the importance of comprehensively measuring the HRQoL in adolescents to capture developmental shifts and to inform preventative and supportive programs as needed.
authors.affiliation: School of Social Sciences and Psychology, University of Western Sydney, PO Box 1797, Penrith, NSW, 2751, Australia. t.meade@uws.edu.au.
authors.forename: Tanya
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Meade
authors.affiliation: School of Social Sciences and Psychology, University of Western Sydney, PO Box 1797, Penrith, NSW, 2751, Australia.
authors.forename: Elizabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Dowswell
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000367:Age Factors; D001315:Australia; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology*; D012727:Sex Characteristics; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: Adolescents; Age; Gender; Health-related quality of life (HRQoL); KIDSCREEN; Physical and mental health