Obese children had impaired psychosocial status as they generally tend to be socially isolated, have poor self-esteem, anxiety, mood disorder (depression and bipolar disorder) and eating disorder. The aim of this study was to investigate the child-report and parent-report of HRQoL among 9-11 years old obese school children in Malaysia and to determine the associated factors of HRQoL among obese children in Malaysia. This study was a cross-sectional study involving 101 obese Malay primary school children aged 9-11 years old from eleven primary schools in Kuala Terengganu which were selected via convenience sampling. Height and weight of the respondents were measured and their BMI was calculated. Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) was measured using PedsQL version 4.0. The mean age of the respondents was 10.02 ± 0.82 years old with mean BMI z-score was 3.01 ± 0.60. There were significance differences between boys and girls in; 1) emotional domain score for child-report QoL (p=0.019) using paired t-test and 2) psychosocial domain score for parent-report QoL (p=0.025). Regression analysis found that age and gender were the associated factors for Psychological Health for obese children (p<0.005). Being obese had negative effects on children’s quality of life. Various strategies interventions should be done to improve the HRQoL of these obese children. A multidisciplinary approach in schools must be organized to encourage a healthy lifestyle as part of routine among the school children.

Obese children had impaired psychosocial status as they generally tend to be socially isolated, have poor self-esteem, anxiety, mood disorder (depression and bipolar disorder) and eating disorder. The aim of this study was to investigate the child-report and parent-report of HRQoL among 9-11 years old obese school children in Malaysia and to determine the associated factors of HRQoL among obese children in Malaysia. This study was a cross-sectional study involving 101 obese Malay primary school children aged 9-11 years old from eleven primary schools in Kuala Terengganu which were selected via convenience sampling. Height and weight of the respondents were measured and their BMI was calculated. Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) was measured using PedsQL version 4.0. The mean age of the respondents was 10.02 ± 0.82 years old with mean BMI z-score was 3.01 ± 0.60. There were significance differences between boys and girls in; 1) emotional domain score for child-report QoL (p=0.019) using paired t-test and 2) psychosocial domain score for parent-report QoL (p=0.025). Regression analysis found that age and gender were the associated factors for Psychological Health for obese children (p<0.005). Being obese had negative effects on children’s quality of life. Various strategies interventions should be done to improve the HRQoL of these obese children. A multidisciplinary approach in schools must be organized to encourage a healthy lifestyle as part of routine among the school children.
Health-related quality of life ; obese ; children ; pedsQL