Health-Related Quality of Life of Overweight and Obese Children

Abstract

In 2003, Schwimmer et al¹ reported in JAMA that “severely obese children and adolescents have lower health-related QOL [quality of life] than children and adolescents who are healthy and similar QOL as those diagnosed as having cancer.” Child overweight and obesity are now so endemic that many countries are reporting prevalences of 25% or higher.² If the associations seen in the study by Schwimmer et al remain for overweight and obese children across the population, then a substantial proportion of children and adolescents could be experiencing major reductions in health-related QOL due to their weight.