Health-related quality of life, health literacy and COVID-19-related worries of 16- to 17-year-old adolescents and parents one year into the pandemic: a cross-sectional study

Abstract Background The uncertain and challenging situation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic affects adolescents and their parents in an exceptional way. More knowledge of health-related quality of life (HRQoL), health literacy (HL) and COVID-19-related worries in adolescents and parents 1 year into the pandemic is needed. The present study aimed to describe HRQoL, HL and COVID-19-related worries of 16- to 17-year-old adolescents and parents of adolescents. Further, to assess the strength of associations between gender, HL, COVID-19-related worries and HRQoL. Methods A cross-sectional study involving 215 adolescents and 320 parents was conducted, exploring HRQoL, HL, COVID-19-related worries and sociodemographic variables. KIDSCREEN-10 and RAND-36 were used to measure HRQoL. Data were analyzed using bivariate methods, multiple linear regression and robust regression. Results Adolescents’ HRQoL was notably lower compared to previous Norwegian studies and European norms. Parents’ HRQoL was comparable to Norwegian norms. Adolescents and parents reported moderate-to-high HL and high degrees of COVID-19-related worries. Females reported significantly lower HRQoL and more worries compared to males. In adolescents, higher HL was significantly associated with higher HRQoL. COVID-19-related worries were not significantly associated with HRQoL. In parents, higher HL in the “understand health information” domain was significantly associated with higher HRQoL for mental well-being (mental component sum scores [MCS]) and with lower HRQoL for physical well-being (physical component sum scores [PCS]). Being worried a lot about infecting others and about family/friends becoming sick was significantly associated with higher MCS and lower MCS, respectively. COVID-19-related worries were not significantly associated with PCS. Conclusions Our results indicate that the pandemic has a major negative impact on adolescents’ HRQoL. Parents’ HRQoL remained unchanged and comparable to previous studies. Our study demonstrates that HL, gender and COVID-19-related worries are significantly associated with adolescents’ and parents’ HRQoL, indicating that efforts aimed at increasing their HL might indirectly affect their HRQoL as well and that gender-specific interventions or strategies could be beneficial.