1. Low health-related quality of life in school-aged children in Tonga, a lower-middle income country in the South Pacific
- Author
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Boyd Swinburn, Helen Mavoa, Marjory Moodie, Gavin Faeamani, Caroline Tupoulahi-Fusimalohi, Solveig Petersen, Kalesita Fotu, and the Wellcome Trust (UK), the National Health and Medical Research Council (Australia), the Health Research Council (New Zealand), the current paper also by the Swedish Council for Working Life and Social Research and the Olle Engkvist Foundation (Sweden)
- Subjects
Male ,Economic growth ,Epidemiology ,Health Status ,Distribution (economics) ,Quality of life ,Surveys and Questionnaires ,Child ,community health ,Psychiatry ,education.field_of_study ,Health Policy ,lcsh:Public aspects of medicine ,Tonga ,1. No poverty ,Public Health ,Global Health ,Preventive Medicine ,Community Health ,Population Health ,Gender Studies ,Public Health, Global Health, Social Medicine and Epidemiology ,adolescent health ,humanities ,3. Good health ,Mental Health ,Community health ,Income ,child health ,Original Article ,Female ,low-income population ,mental health ,quality of life ,Adolescent health ,medicine.medical_specialty ,Adolescent ,Population ,Developing country ,Psykiatri ,RA1-1270 ,RA407-409.5 ,RA421-790.95 ,RA790-790.95 ,RC49-52 ,RJ101-103 ,medicine ,Humans ,education ,Developing Countries ,business.industry ,Public health ,Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health ,lcsh:RA1-1270 ,Mental health ,Folkhälsovetenskap, global hälsa, socialmedicin och epidemiologi ,Cross-Sectional Studies ,business ,Demography ,New Zealand - Abstract
Background : Ensuring a good life for all parts of the population, including children, is high on the public health agenda in most countries around the world. Information about children’s perception of their health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and its socio-demographic distribution is, however, limited and almost exclusively reliant on data from Western higher income countries. Objectives : To investigate HRQoL in schoolchildren in Tonga, a lower income South Pacific Island country, and to compare this to HRQoL of children in other countries, including Tongan children living in New Zealand, a high-income country in the same region. Design : A cross-sectional study from Tonga addressing all secondary schoolchildren (11–18 years old) on the outer island of Vava’u and in three districts of the main island of Tongatapu (2,164 participants). A comparison group drawn from the literature comprised children in 18 higher income and one lower income country (Fiji). A specific New Zealand comparison group involved all children of Tongan descendent at six South Auckland secondary schools (830 participants). HRQoL was assessed by the self-report Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory 4.0. Results : HRQoL in Tonga was overall similar in girls and boys, but somewhat lower in children below 15 years of age. The children in Tonga experienced lower HRQoL than the children in all of the 19 comparison countries, with a large difference between children in Tonga and the higher income countries (Cohen’s d 1.0) and a small difference between Tonga and the lower income country Fiji (Cohen’s d 0.3). The children in Tonga also experienced lower HRQoL than Tongan children living in New Zealand (Cohen’s d 0.6). Conclusion : The results reveal worrisome low HRQoL in children in Tonga and point towards a potential general pattern of low HRQoL in children living in lower income countries, or, alternatively, in the South Pacific Island countries. Keywords : adolescent health; child health; community health; Epidemiology; low-income population; mental health; quality of life (Published: 20 August 2014) Citation : Glob Health Action 2014, 7 : 24896 - http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/gha.v7.24896
- Published
- 2014