The Journal of Pediatrics
Volume 147, Issue 4 , Pages 443-450, October 2005

Health-Related Quality of Life in Overweight and Nonoverweight Black and White Adolescents

From the Unit on Growth and Obesity, Developmental Endocrinology Branch, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development; the Division of Nutrition Research Coordination, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive Kidney Diseases, National Institutes of Health, DHHS, Bethesda, Maryland; and the Department of Community and Family Medicine, Duke University Health Systems, Durham, North Carolina

Received 20 December 2004; received in revised form 27 April 2005; accepted 31 May 2005.

Objectives

To assess the impact of obesity on quality of life (QOL) in black and white adolescents.

Study design

One hundred ten overweight (body mass index [BMI], 41.7 ± 8.9 kg/m2) and 34 nonoverweight adolescents (BMI, 20.6 ± 2.9 kg/m2) and their parents completed measures of QOL.

Results

Overweight was associated with poorer adolescent-reported QOL and parent reports of their children's QOL. Examining groups by weight status and race, overweight whites reported the greatest impairment on Social/Interpersonal, Self-Esteem, and Physical Appearance QOL (all P < .01), whereas parents of overweight blacks reported the poorest General Health Perceptions scores regarding their children. Interactions between BMI z-score and race were detected for Social/Interpersonal, Self-esteem, Daily Living, Self-Efficacy, Self-regard, and Physical Appearance QOL (all P < .05): Higher BMI in whites was associated with greater impairments in QOL than in blacks. Parents reported similar relations for their children.

Conclusions

According to adolescent and parent reports, overweight is associated with poorer QOL in adolescence, regardless of race; however, compared with overweight white adolescents, blacks report less impairment in QOL. Future research is required to determine whether differences in QOL are predictive of treatment success.

BMI, Body mass index, HRQOL, Health-related quality of life, QOL, Quality of life

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 Ms. Fallon and Dr. Tanofsky-Kraff contributed equally to this work.Dr Yanovski is a Commissioned Officer in the United States Public Health Service, DHHS.This research was supported by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (Z01-HD-00641) and the National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities, NIH, DHHS.

PII: S0022-3476(05)00470-1

doi:10.1016/j.jpeds.2005.05.039

The Journal of Pediatrics
Volume 147, Issue 4 , Pages 443-450, October 2005

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