scholarly journals Mental Health, Quality of Life and Violence Exposure in Low-Socioeconomic Status Children and Adolescents of Guatemala

Author(s):  
Rosalba Company-Córdoba ◽  
Diego Gómez-Baya ◽  
Francisca López-Gaviño ◽  
Joaquín A. Ibáñez-Alfonso

Growing up in vulnerable conditions has an impact on children and adolescents’ mental health and well-being outcomes. However, this evidence has rarely been obtained in middle and low-income countries like Guatemala, where food insecurity and exposure to violence frequently threaten childhood development. The aim of this study was to analyse the relations that sociodemographic and socioeconomic factors have with psychological adjustment of low-socioeconomic status (SES) Guatemalan children and adolescents, and how these relations were mediated by food insecurity and exposure to violence. A total of 185 participants (50.8% girls; aged between 6 to 17, M = 11.82, SD = 3.7) from three vulnerable schools located in rural and urban areas of Guatemala were assessed. The results indicated that exposure to violence significantly moderates the effect of sociodemographic and socioeconomic variables in measures of depression, anxiety and health-related quality of life. Adolescents more exposed to violence reported higher levels of depression and anxiety, as well as lower levels of health-related quality of life. In contrast, food insecurity did not seem to influence psychological adjustment outcomes in this low-SES sample. These findings highlight the relevance of exposure to violence for mental health and well-being, and is a factor that should be considered when designing public health policies to promote children and adolescents’ welfare.

Author(s):  
Serkan Gunes ◽  
Rahime Aldemir ◽  
Adem Gunes ◽  
Ozalp Ekinci

IntroductionChildren with sickle cell disease (SCD) can present a variety of clinical symptoms that may affect their sleep and health-related quality of life (HRQOL). This study aims to investigate the relation between sleep problems and HRQOL in children and adolescents with SCD.Material and methodsThe sample included 86 children and adolescents in the SCD patient group and 82 healthy controls, with an age range of 8-16 years. Subjects for the study were recruited from the Sickle Cell and Thalassemia Center of Hatay State Hospital, Hatay, Turkey. The Children’s Sleep Habits Questionnaire (CSHQ) was used to evaluate sleep problems and Kinder Lebens­qualitätsfragebogen: Children’s Quality of Life Questionnaire – revis­ed (KINDL-R) was used to examine HRQOL.ResultsTotal score, bedtime resistance, and night waking subscores of CSHQ were significantly higher in children with SCD when compared to healthy children. Total score, physical well-being, emotional well-being, social, and school subscores of KINDL-R were significantly lower in the patient group. Among SCD children, total score, bedtime resistance, sleep onset delay, daytime sleepiness, and parasomnias subscores of CSHQ were negatively correlated with KINDL-R total score. In the regression model, disease severity and CSHQ total score had significant negative associations with KINDL-R total score.ConclusionsSleep problems in SCD children appear to be negatively linked with HRQOL. Disease severity and sleep problems may be predictors of overall HRQOL in children and adolescents with SCD.


2011 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 451-457 ◽  
Author(s):  
Viviane Martinelli Pelegrino ◽  
Rosana Aparecida Spadoti Dantas ◽  
Alexander Michael Clark

This descriptive and exploratory study analyzed variables associated with health-related quality of life among 130 outpatients. Health-related quality of life was measured through the Minnesota Living with Heart Failure Questionnaire. Significant associations were found between patients’ health-related quality of life and their age (r=-0.177; p=0.044), vitality (r=-0.625; p=<0.001) as well as mental health (r=-0.672; p=<0.001), which are both SF-36 domains. The linear regression showed that heart failure symptom severity, vitality and mental health explained 54% of HRQOL measurement variation. To control symptoms and preserve good mental well-being are important to maintain health-related quality of life and to deliver effective heart failure care.


2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lara Meixner ◽  
Caroline Cohrdes ◽  
Anja Schienkiewitz ◽  
Gert B. M. Mensink

Abstract Background The well-being of persons with overweight and obesity, in particular of children and adolescents, may be impaired. The present study investigates the health-related quality of life (HRQoL) of girls and boys with overweight and obesity living in Germany as compared to those of normal-weight, while taking a selection of relevant determinants of HRQoL into account. Methods The sample comprises 1771 children and adolescents aged 11 to 17 years that took part in the cross-sectional German Health Interview and Examination Survey for Children and Adolescents (KIGGS Wave 2, 2014–2017). Sex-and age-specific BMI (kg/m2) percentiles were utilized to classify overweight and obesity. HRQoL was measured with the KIDSCREEN-27 questionnaire, which gathers detailed information about the five dimensions physical and psychological well-being, well-being regarding peers (i.e., social acceptance), parents (i.e., autonomy) and within the school environment. Multiple regression analyses were performed with HRQoL dimensions as outcomes to test for differences between children and adolescents with normal-weight vs. those with overweight and vs. those with obesity, separately for girls and boys. In a next step, age, physical activity, media consumption, social support and self-efficacy were considered as potential confounders in the analyses. Results 18.7% of the children and adolescents under study were affected by overweight and among them 8.0% by obesity. After adjusting for potential confounders, overweight and obesity were associated with lower physical well-being as compared to normal weight in both sexes (boys with overweight: standardized beta [β] = −.14, standard error [SE] = .03, p < .001, and obesity: β = −.16, SE = .03, p < .001; girls with overweight: β = −.09, SE = .04, p = .011, and obesity: β = −.11, SE = .03, p = .003). Results moreover suggest lower levels of psychological (β = −.10, SE = .04, p = .002) and parent-related well-being (β = −.08, SE = .04, p = .036) of boys with obesity as compared to normal-weight peers. Conclusion HRQoL of German children and adolescents with overweight and obesity is impaired according to physical well-being in general, while psychological and parent-related well-being is particularly affected in boys. Public health approaches should therefore promote children and adolescents with overweight and obesity by improving diverse facets of HRQoL as well as relevant associated factors (i.e., media consumption, self-efficacy) in general and in boys in particular.


2012 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 177-186 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tania Gaspar ◽  
José Pais Ribeiro ◽  
Margarida Gaspar de Matos ◽  
Isabel Leal ◽  
Aristides Ferreira

The main objective of this study was to build a model, which includes personal and social factors, that helps to highlight factors that promote health-related quality of Life (HRQoL) in children and in adolescents. A sample of 3195 children and adolescents was acquired from 5th and 7th graders from all five Portuguese regions. In this study three independent latent variables were specified – Physical, Psychological and Social and two dependent latent variables were measured: Health behavior and Quality of Life. The integrative model was composed by different components: (1) health-related quality of life, integrated by 8 dimensions from KIDSCREEN-52; (2) health behavior, (3) variables related to physical health; (4) variables related to social health; (5) variables related to psychological health. As results were found strong correlation between psychological dimensions and self-esteem and other factors and a structural equation model was developed. The model presented a RMSEA index of .08. Similarly, adjustment levels for the CFI, NFI and IFI vary above or around .90, which suggests a good adjustment for the hypothesized model. The model presented significant qui-square.This study showed that in all the samples studied, the psychological variables were those that contributed at a superior level to HRQoL.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephanie Bourion-Bedes ◽  
Hélène Rousseau ◽  
Martine Batt ◽  
Pascale Tarquinio ◽  
Romain Lebreuilly ◽  
...  

Abstract Purpose: Billions of children worldwide were sent under lockdown due to the coronavirus disease. This study aimed to investigate child-reported and parent-rated health-related quality of life among 8- to 18-year-olds and the agreement between the children’s assessments and those of their parents during lockdown.Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among French children living in the Grand Est area. An online survey was used to collect data on the children’s sociodemographics, living environments, education and HRQoL. The latter was assessed with KIDSCREEN-27, which consists of five domains. Sex and age differences in parent ratings and child-reported data were analyzed using Kruskal-Wallis tests. Child-parent agreement was analyzed using the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC).Results: In total, 471 child-parent pairs from 341 households were included. Compared to European norms, children scored lower on all dimensions during the first lockdown: physical well-being (45.9/49.94 EU), psychological well-being (48.8/49.77 EU), parent relations and autonomy (47.7/49.99 EU), social support and peers (36.4/49.94) and school (48.2/50). Significant child-reported sex and age differences were identified for both psychological and physical well-being dimensions. Moderate to good agreement existed between children’s and parents’ ratings on all KIDSCREEN dimensions (ICC ranged from 0.60 to 0.76).Conclusion: The study suggests the need to focus on children’s social support and peers during epidemics and to consider the children’s self-reported HRQoL. Additional research should be conducted to identify ways of minimizing the gap between mental health needs and the services available and to help more children maintain their physical and mental health during the current crisis.


2013 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 8-16
Author(s):  
Matthew R. Scherer, PT, PhD, NCS ◽  
Daniel M. Gade, PhD ◽  
Kathleen E. Yancosek, PhD, OTR/L, CHT

Adaptive sports are popular within military and civilian rehabilitation communities as a means to promote fitness, independence, self-efficacy, and return to participation in life roles. Although widely prescribed, there is little evidence to demonstrate the efficacy of such interventions. This study surveyed 40 wounded, ill, and injured active duty and veteran service members (SMs) who participated in a week-long adaptive kayaking program. Validated health-related quality of life instruments assessing physical and behavioral health domains following trauma were administered before and after participation in a week-long adaptive kayaking trip. Postintervention analysis of these measures revealed clinically significant improvements in depression (+7 percent), anxiety (+5 percent), posttraumatic stress disorder (+4 percent), and social interaction (+7 percent) subscales on the Trauma Outcome Profile (TOP) which trended toward, but did not achieve, statistical significance. Analysis of Veterans RAND (VR-12) data revealed a mean four-point improvement in participant mental health component summary (MCS) scores (p _ 0.05) following intervention indicating clinically and statistically significant improvement in behavioral health symptoms. No improvement was observed on the mean postintervention physical health component summary (PCS) score suggesting minimal short-term effects of kayaking on self-assessment of physical well-being. In aggregate, findings from this study suggest that adaptive kayaking may be an effective intervention to remediate behavioral health sequelae commonly experienced by SM following trauma. Future research should explore the effectiveness of adaptive kayaking relative to standard of care clinical rehabilitation strategies to optimize physical as well as mental health outcomes.


Author(s):  
Natalia Albaladejo-Blázquez ◽  
Rosario Ferrer-Cascales ◽  
Nicolás Ruiz-Robledillo ◽  
Miriam Sánchez-SanSegundo ◽  
Manuel Fernández-Alcántara ◽  
...  

Bullying has been traditionally related to a significant reduction in well-being and Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) of adolescents. This negative impact on HRQoL seems to be modulated by the developed role in bullying (uninvolved, bully, victim or bully-victim). However, no studies have identified if these negative results are the same when other types of bullying, such as homophobic bullying, are evaluated. The main aim of the present study was to analyze the prevalence of different roles of bullying and homophobic bullying and the relationship between these roles in both types of bullying with HRQoL, depression and anxiety levels in a sample of 1723 Spanish adolescents. Although results exhibited lower prevalence of homophobic bullying roles when compared to traditionally bullying in general, in the case of victims, the prevalence was high in the case of homophobic bullying. When differences between roles in HRQoL, depression and anxiety were evaluated, in both types of bullying, uninvolved adolescents showed the best results and bully-victim adolescents the worst. The obtained results suppose an improvement in the understanding of the negative effects of different types of bullying on HRQoL and mental health in adolescents. Future research could advance in this comprehension, analyzing possible differences with other types of bullying, such as cyberbullying.


2016 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 388-400 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maja S. Sommer ◽  
Karen Trier ◽  
Jette Vibe-Petersen ◽  
Karl B. Christensen ◽  
Malene Missel ◽  
...  

Introduction: Surgical resection in patients with non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) may be associated with significant morbidity, functional limitations, and decreased quality of life. Objectives: The objective is to present health-related quality of life (HRQoL) changes over time before and 1 year after surgery in patients with NSCLC participating in a rehabilitation program. Methods: Forty patients with NSCLC in disease stage I to IIIa, referred for surgical resection at the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery RT, Rigshospitalet, were included in the study. The rehabilitation program comprised supervised group exercise program, 2 hours weekly for 12 weeks, combined with individual counseling. The study endpoints were self-reported HRQoL (Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy–Lung, European Organization for Research and Treatment in Cancer–Quality of Life Questionnaire-QLQ-C30, Short-Form-36) and self-reported distress, anxiety, depression, and social support (National Comprehensive Cancer Network Distress Thermometer, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support), measured presurgery, postintervention, 6 months, and 1 year after surgery. Results: Forty patients were included, 73% of whom completed rehabilitation. Results on emotional well-being ( P < .0001), global quality of life ( P = .0032), and mental health component score ( P = .0004) showed an overall statistically significant improvement during the study. Conclusion: This feasibility study demonstrated that global quality of life, mental health, and emotional well-being improved significantly during the study, from time of diagnosis until 1 year after resection, in patients with NSCLC participating in rehabilitation.


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