Assessment of the Quality of Life of Children in the Primary Health Care Department
Keywords:
HRQoL, Pediatric, Quality of Life, sociodemographic, questionnaire, survey, coughAbstract
Background: Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) is a valuable perspective on children's health beyond what is captured on the chart but is not routinely measured in primary care. Design: Cross-sectional study. Methods: Description of HRQoL in children attending a primary health care department and the identification of factors associated with HRQoL was done using a cross-sectional study design. Methods: Cross-sectional study of 169 children aged 8-12 years from Iraq with a study period of 2025-2026. Children filled out the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory (PedsQL 4.0) generic core scales, and a parent provided sociodemographic and health data. Data was analysed with descriptive statistics, independent-samples t-tests, one-way ANOVA with Tukey post hoc tests, Pearson and Spearman correlations, and multiple linear regression (significance set at 0.05). Results: The mean total PedsQL score was 73.2 ± 11.1. Social functioning was the highest functioning domain (78.5 ± 13.7), and the school functioning domain was the lowest (65.8 ± 15.7). Children with a chronic condition scored about 10.1 points lower than their peers (65.9 ± 12.1 vs 76.0 ± 9.3; p < 0.001). Scores rose with household income (F = 7.06, p = 0.001) and fell with school absence (r = -0.31, p < 0.001). There was no association between HRQoL and sex and age. Multivariable model (R² = 0.297): Only chronic condition (B = -10.31) and high household income (B = +8.28) were independent predictors.
Conclusions: In this sample, chronic illness and low income of the household were the most obvious indicators of poor HRQoL. If real data are similar, short-term routine HRQoL screening may be useful to identify children who require additional support from primary care teams.
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