Is there an association between early weight status and utility-based health-related quality of life in young children?

The Health Utilities Index Mark 3 (HUI3) is a generic multiattribute preference-based measure of health status and health-related quality of life that is widely used as an outcome measure in clinical studies, in population health surveys, in the estimation of quality-adjusted life years, and in economic evaluations. HUI3 consists of eight attributes (or dimensions) of health status: vision, hearing, speech, ambulation, dexterity, emotion, cognition, and pain with 5 or 6 levels per attribute, varying from highly impaired to normal. The objectives are to present a multiattribute utility function and eight single-attribute utility functions for the HUI3 system based on community preferences. Two preference surveys were conducted. One, the modeling survey, collected preference scores for the estimation of the utility functions. The other, the direct survey, provided independent scores to assess the predictive validity of the utility functions. Preference measures included value scores obtained on the Feeling Thermometer and standard gamble utility scores obtained using the Chance Board. A random sample of the general population (> or =16 years of age) in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Estimates were obtained for eight single-attribute utility functions and an overall multiattribute utility function. The intraclass correlation coefficient between directly measured utility scores and scores generated by the multiattribute function for 73 health states was 0.88. The HUI3 scoring function has strong theoretical and empirical foundations. It performs well in predicting directly measured scores. The HUI3 system provides a practical way to obtain utility scores based on community preferences.

This review addresses the effect of overweight and obese weight status on pediatric health-related quality of life (HRQOL). Web of Science, Medline, CINAHL, Cochrane Library, EMBASE, AMED and PubMed were searched for peer-reviewed studies in English reporting HRQOL and weight status in youth (<21 years), published before March 2008. Twenty-eight articles were identified. Regression of HRQOL against body mass index (BMI) using pooled data from 13 studies utilizing the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory identified an inverse relationship between BMI and pediatric HRQOL (r=-0.7, P=0.008), with impairments in physical and social functioning consistently reported. HRQOL seemed to improve with weight loss, but randomized controlled trials were few and lacked long-term follow-up. Little is known about the factors associated with reduced HRQOL among overweight or obese youth, although gender, age and obesity-related co-morbidities may play a role. Few studies have examined the differences in HRQOL between community and treatment-seeking samples. Pooled regressions suggest pediatric self-reported HRQOL can be predicted from parent proxy reports, although parents of obese youths tend to perceive worse HRQOL than children do about themselves. Thus, future research should include both pediatric and parent proxy perspectives.