[Quality of life and its influencing factors in small for gestational age infants during early childhood].
OBJECTIVE
To investigate the difference in quality of life (QOL) between small for gestational age (SGA) and appropriate for gestational age (AGA) infants during early childhood, and to investigate the factors influcing the QOL.


METHODS
The Infant and Toddler Quality of Life Questionnaire-47 (ITQOL-SF47) was used to investigate the QOL of 1 to 3-year-old children born SGA and AGA who visited the child health care division. QOL was compared between SGA (n=203) and AGA groups (n=130), between the catch-up (n=119) and no-catch-up subgroups (n=84) of children born SGA, and between the single healthcare (n=144) and multiple healthcare subgroups (n=59) of children born SGA. The generalized linear model was used to investigate the factors influencing the QOL.


RESULTS
The total ITQOL score of the SGA group was significantly lower than that of the AGA group (630±99 vs 716±84; P<0.05). In children born SGA, the no-catch-up subgroup had a significantly lower total ITQOL score than the catch-up subgroup (602±96 vs 649±97; P<0.05), and the single healthcare subgroup had a significantly lower total ITQOL score than the multiple healthcare subgroup (616±94 vs 657±107; P<0.05). The generalized linear model analysis showed that in children born SGA who had catch-up or multiple healthcare visits, who were female or living in the Chongqing urban area, or their mothers had a higher educational levels had higher total ITQOL score.


CONCLUSIONS
SGA infants have lower QOL than AGA infats during their early childhood. Proper promotion of catch-up growth and regular healthcare visits will contribute to the improvement of the QOL of SGA infants. The QOL of SGA infants is also influcenced by children's sex, residence and the degree of mothers' educational levels.
Department of Health Care, Children's Hospital of Chongqing Medical University/Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Child Development and Disorder/Chongqing Key Laboratory of Pediatrics/China International Science and Technology Cooperation Base of Child Development and Critical Disorders, Chongqing 400014, China. 13667683075@126.com.
Qin
Q
Yang
Xuan
X
Zhang
Qian
Q
Cheng
D002675:Child, Preschool; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007236:Infant, Small for Gestational Age / Q000523:psychology*; D008297:Male; D011788:Quality of Life