Quality of life in obese schoolchildren

Introduction. According to the latest data, about forty-three million children under 5 years of age are overweight worldwide and more than 340 million children and adolescents aged 5 to 19 years are overweight or obese. Health-related quality of life is a promising tool that allows including a subjective description of the condition by the patient himself, along with laboratory, instrumental and other examinations, for a more complete assessment of his clinical status. Aim. To study the influence of the severity of obesity and individual components of the metabolic syndrome on the indicators of the quality of life in schoolchildren. Materials and methods. The study included twenty-eight obese children (SDS BMI ≥+2), 17 boys (60.7%), 11 girls (39.3%), mean age 12.2 ± 1.9 years. Obesity Ι degree (SDS BMI 2-2.5) was diagnosed in 13 cases, ΙΙ degree (SDS BMI ≥ 2.6-3.0) - in 7, ΙΙΙ degree (SDS BMI 3.1-3.9) - in 8 children. When establishing the diagnosis of metabolic syndrome, the standard criteria for metabolic syndrome in patients over 10 years were used. The comparison group consisted of 30 conditionally healthy children of comparable age. The quality of life was assessed using the Russian version of the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory - PedsQLTM4.0. Results. Obese children scored lowest on emotional well-being (62.4; 95% CI 54.5-70.3) and school functioning (61.1; 95% CI 54.6-67.5) in relation to the responses of healthy children (EF - 79.1; 95% CI 77.3-80.8 points; FFS - 85.7; 95% CI 82.7-88.7 points; p < 0.001). A negative correlation was found between the severity of obesity (SDS BMI) and the scale of physical functioning. Arterial hypertension has the most pronounced negative impact on the quality of life, and on indicators of physical and psychosocial functioning. The identified disorders of lipid and carbohydrate metabolism were determined have no any significant impact on the quality of life parameters. Conclusion. In obese children, there is a significant decrease in quality of life indicators for all studied parameters (p < 0.001), excluding the indicator of social functioning (p = 0.249). Among the components of the metabolic syndrome, arterial hypertension has a significant negative impact on the indicators of physical and psychosocial functioning.