OBJECTIVE: To assess health- related quality of life and its association to excess weight in adolescents. METHODS: Cross-sectional study including 467 adolescents aged 15 to 18 years enrolled in a public school in Florianopolis, Southern Brazil, and their parents, conducted in 2007. Overweight and obesity were defined according to the body mass index. The combination of overweight and obesity was defined as excess body weight. Health-related quality of life was assessed using the Pediatric Quality of life Inventory (PedsQL) 4.0 for adolescents and their parents. Descriptive statistics and unadjusted and adjusted logistic regression analyses were performed. RESULTS: The response rate was 99.4% among adolescents and 53.4% among their parents. The prevalence of overweight was 12.2% and obesity was 3.6%. The group of adolescents with excess weight had lower health-related quality of life when compared with those who were not excess weight, except for the emotional domain in the adolescents, and the psychosocial health domain for the parents. After adjusting, adolescents with excess weight were 3.54 (95% CI 1.4;6.47) folds more likely to have low quality of life than those with no excess weight. Female adolescents had lower quality of life scores. CONCLUSIONS: Health-related quality of life was significantly lower in adolescents with excess weight excess. Public health actions directed to weight control in adolescents and instruments for quality of life measures are major instruments for a better thorough understanding of this important public health problem.
Adolescent; Overweight; Obesity; Quality of Life; Questionnaires; Adolescent Health; Cross-Sectional Studies
