Assessment of life quality indicators in school-age children with hypertension and obesity

Abstract

The steady increase in the prevalence of obesity, arterial hypertension (Н) and their comorbidity among children and adults requires additional scientific research to identify the features of the combined course of these diseases and possible ways to improve treatment and preventive measures in patients of different age groups. Purpose - to analyze indicators of the quality of life (QL) in school-aged children with H and obesity. Materials and methods. 95 children aged 9-18 were examined. The examinees were divided into 4 groups: the Group 1 - children with normal blood pressure and normal body weight (BW); the Group 2 - patients with H and normal BW; the Group 3 - with normal blood pressure and obesity; the Group 4 - children with Hand obesity. QL was determined for all children using the Ukrainian version of the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory 4.0 questionnaire. The frequency of certain complaints and some peculiarities of children’s lives in the study groups were also determined using a questionnaire developed by us. Statistical processing of the obtained results was carried out using MedStat v 5.2 (Y.E. Lyakh, V.G. Guryanov) and EZR v 1.35 (Saitama Medical Centre, Jichi Medical University, Saitama Japan 2017) programs. Results and conclusions. QL indicators in patients with obesity and H are lower (p<0.05) than in the group of healthy children. The lowest indicators of the QL are observed in the Group 4, which were significantly lower (p<0.005) compared to the same indicators in the Groups 2 and 3. Patients with H had significantly more frequent (p<0.05) complaints of headache and dizziness compared with the Group 1. Patients with obesity had more (p<0.05) complaints of heart palpitations during minor physical exertion compared to healthy children. In patients of the Group 4, complaints of headache, dizziness, palpitations during minor physical exertion were more common compared to the Group 1 (p<0.05), and dizziness was more common than in the Group 3 (p<0.05). According to survey data, 44.7% of obese children estimated their body weight as normal and did not consider it appropriate to change their lifestyle. The research was carried out in accordance with the principles of the Helsinki Declaration. The study protocol was approved by the Local Ethics Committee of the participating institution. The informed consent of the patient was obtained for conducting the studies. No conflict of interests was declared by the authors.