Health-related quality of life of Palestinian preschoolers in the Gaza Strip: a cross-sectional study

BMC Public Health

Research Article

Abdel-Aziz Thabet¹  Salwa G Massad²  Mari Palta³  F Javier Nieto³  Maureen Smith³  Roseanne Clark⁴ 

[1] Child Institute, Al Quds University - Gaza Branch, Gaza, Palestine;Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, BirZeit University, BirZeit, Palestine;Department of Population Health Sciences, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, USA;Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, USA;

关键词: Traumatic Event;    Post Traumatic Stress Disorder;    Poor Mental Health;    Emotional Functioning;    Psychosocial Health;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1471-2458-11-253

 received in 2010-11-17, accepted in 2011-04-21,  发布年份 2011

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundResearch on children's responses to wartime trauma has mostly addressed Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). However, PTSD is only one aspect of a complex set of responses. This study proposes to expand knowledge of well-being in children exposed to political violence through widening the conceptualization of well-being beyond PTSD, morbidity, and mortality by measuring health-related quality of life (HRQOL) and its facets, physical health, and psychosocial health.MethodsIn 2007, we used a cross-sectional random sample of kindergartens to examine factors associated with HRQOL, as measured by the PedsQL 4.0, in 350 preschoolers in the Gaza Strip, Palestine, where political violence and deprivation are widespread.ResultsAbout 65% of the mothers reported severely impaired psychosocial and emotional functioning in their children. Preschoolers had lower HRQOL than the US reference sample and samples of children in other low income countries with large effect size. HRQOL was comparable to those of US children with several chronic diseases. Factors associated with lower HRQOL were older child age, male gender, and more exposures to traumatic events. Factors associated with HRQOL subscales were for lower psychosocial health: older child age, history of food, water, and electricity deprivation during incursion, and witnessing assassination of people by rockets. For lower physical health: older child age, history of food, water, and electricity deprivation during incursion, and having heard of a killing of a friend by soldiers.ConclusionsHRQOL, including psychosocial health and emotional functioning is often severely impaired among preschoolers in the Gaza Strip. Exposure to both violent and non-violent negative events was associated with HRQOL in preschoolers.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© Massad et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2011