JPSIM Journal of Pakistan Society of Internal Medicine J Pak Soc Intern Med 2709-8729 2710-0804 Pakistan Society of Internal Medicine 10.70302/jpsim.v3i4.2261 jpsim.v3i4.2261 Original Research Comparison of Effects of Chronic illnesses and Obesity on Health Related Quality of Life Rao Iqra iqrarao17801@import.invalid * Fatima Iman Iqbal Javeria Siddiq Iraj Malook Qais ul Saleemi Hurriat Yusuf Humna Sajid Hassan Ahmad Hasnaat Ilyas Hasan Mukhtar Hesham Mayo Hospital Lahore *Correspondence: Iqra Rao (iqrarao17801@import.invalid) 18 12 2022 2022 3 4 306 312 14 08 2022 03 10 2022 Copyright © 2022 The Author(s) 2022 The Author(s) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Objective

The purpose of this study is to compare the degree of impairment among obese and chronically ill children against healthy children in the setting of Mayo Hospital and two public sector schools in Lahore.

 Methodology

This cross-sectional study included 152 children comprising the age group of 8-12 years recruited via purposive sampling. HRQoL was assessed using PedsQL version 4.0, and a trained interviewer obtained the child's self-report. The ANOVA test was applied to compare subscales and total scores, while significant differences were determined by Bonferroni post hoc test.

 Results

Mean self-reported total health scores were 84.2 ± 10.4 and 80.0 ± 9.4 in healthy boys and girls, 73.7 ± 23 and 65.5 ± 21.4 in chronically ill boys and girls, 68.3 ± 17 and 63.1 ± 16.3 in obese boys and girls, respectively. The current study's findings indicated least HRQoL scores among obese children as compared to their counterparts. Regarding the subscales, the lowest scores were reported in chronically ill children specifically in physical and school functioning, while obese children reported the lowest scores in emotional and social functioning.

 Conclusion

Chronic illnesses mainly affect physical and school functioning, while obesity affects emotional and social functioning in children the most. It suggests that awareness be provided regarding childhood obesity to both children and parents and steps be taken to the prevention of childhood obesity and thus improving the standard of living. Moreover, disease processes in early childhood must be diagnosed with early intervention/investigation.

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