Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #114652

Jan L. Wallander, PhD, Sociometrics Corp., 170 State St, Suite 260, Los Altos, CA 94022-2812, 650.949.3282, janw@socio.com, Frank A. Franklin, MD, PhD, Pediatric Gastroenterology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, ACC 618, 1600 6th Ave S, Birmingham, AL 35294-0011, Jo Anne Grunbaum, EdD, Division of Adolescent and School Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 4770 Buford Hwy, Mailstop K-33, Atlanta, GA 30341, Gail Harrison, PhD, Department of Community Health Sciences, UCLA, School of Public Health, Box 951772, Los Angeles, CA 90095, Steven H. Kelder, PhD, MPH, School of Public Health, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Center for Health Promotion and Prevention Research, 7000 Fannin, Suite 2658, Houston, TX 77030, Wendell C. Taylor, PhD, School of Public Health, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, P.O. Box 20036, Houston, TX 77225, and Mark Schuster, MD,, PhD, Departments of Pediatrics and Health Services, UCLA and RAND, UCLA/RAND Center for Adolescent Health Promotion, 1072 Gayley Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90024.

An increasing proportion of children are overweight, with associated risk for long-term health consequences. However, little is known about how weight status may related to children's quality of life. A JAMA publication reported that severely obese children have a reduced QOL similar to that of children with cancer, however research on more diverse samples is needed. To study the relationship between body mass and QOL in a more representative sample, we defined a population of all 5th grade students enrolled in public schools in three urban areas in Alabama, California, and Texas. Following a two-stage probability sampling procedure, a sample of 646 5th graders were enrolled (46% boys; 24% white, 36% black, and 31% Hispanic) in a pilot study for the longitudinal, community-based Healthy Passages project. During home visits, trained staff measured children's height and weight, from which body mass index (BMI) and overweight status were derived and administered the PedsQL; the Self Perception Profile Physical Appearance subscale; and two items comparing ideal with actual body size. Overweight children reported significantly lower QOL than children of normal weight. Preliminary univariate analyses indicated a significant but weak association between BMI and overall QOL, while the association between perceived physical appearance and QOL was much stronger. The associations between body mass and QOL varied interestingly between genders and among race/ethnicity groups. Multivariate analysis will be conducted to examine adjusted relationships between QOL and BMI, self-perceptions, and other variables, in interaction with gender and racial/ethnic membership.

Learning Objectives:

• Articulate the importance of considering quality of life (QOL) in relation to children’s physical health.
• Describe the relationship between weight status and QOL in 5th grade children overall and by gender and race/ethnicity groups.
• Discuss the relative role of actual and perceived body appearance in QOL in 5th grade children.

Keywords: Quality of Life, Obesity

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commertial supporters WITH THE EXCEPTION OF being an employee of Sociometrics Corp, a for-profit research and development company that produces and markets behavioral-science based products for researchers and practitioners..

Recorded presentation