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Health-related quality of life in rural children living in four European countries: the GABRIEL study

  • Original Article
  • Published:
International Journal of Public Health

Abstract

Objective

Measuring children’s health-related quality of life (HRQOL) is of growing importance given increasing chronic diseases. By integrating HRQOL questions into the European GABRIEL study, we assessed differences in HRQOL between rural farm and non-farm children from Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Poland to relate it to common childhood health problems and to compare it to a representative, mostly urban German population sample (KIGGS).

Methods

The parents of 10,400 school-aged children answered comprehensive questionnaires including health-related questions and the KINDL-R questions assessing HRQOL.

Results

Austrian children reported highest KINDL-R scores (mean: 80.9; 95 % CI [80.4, 81.4]) and Polish children the lowest (74.5; [73.9, 75.0]). Farm children reported higher KINDL-R scores than non-farm children (p = 0.002). Significantly lower scores were observed in children with allergic diseases (p < 0.001), with sleeping difficulties (p < 0.001) and in overweight children (p = 0.04). The German GABRIEL sample reported higher mean scores (age 7–10 years: 80.1, [79.9, 80.4]; age 11–13 years: 77.1, [74.9, 79.2]) compared to the urban KIGGS study (age 7–10 years: 79.0, [78.7–79.3]; age 11–13 years: 75.1 [74.6–75.6]). Socio-demographic or health-related factors could not explain differences in HRQOL between countries.

Conclusions

Future increases in chronic diseases may negatively impact children’s HRQOL.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Ulrike Ravens-Sieberer and the Robert Koch Institute, Berlin for sharing the KINDL-R questionnaire on health-related quality of life. This work was supported by the European Commission as part of GABRIEL (A multidisciplinary study to identify the genetic and environmental causes of asthma in the European Community), contract number 018996 under the Integrated Program LSH-2004-1.2.5-1.

Conflict of interest

None of the authors had any conflict of interest. None of the authors received fees for the study.

Ethical standards

In all countries participating in our study, the ethics committees of the respective universities and the data protection authorities had approved the study.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, Socinstrasse 57, P.O. Box 4002, Basel, Switzerland

    Laura Stöcklin, Georg Loss & Charlotte Braun-Fahrländer

  2. University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland

    Laura Stöcklin, Georg Loss & Charlotte Braun-Fahrländer

  3. University Children’s Hospital, LMU Munich, Munich, Germany

    Erika von Mutius & Juliane Weber

  4. Institute of Epidemiology and Medical Biometry, University of Ulm, Ulm, Germany

    Jon Genuneit

  5. Division of Cardiology and Pulmonology, The Department of Pediatrics and Adolescents, Innsbruck, Austria

    Elisabeth Horak

  6. 1st Department of Paediatrics, Allergology and Cardiology, Wroclaw Medical University, Wroclaw, Poland

    Barbara Sozanska & Hanna Danielewicz

  7. National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College London, London, UK

    Paul Cullinan

  8. Institute for Risk Assessment Sciences (IRAS), Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands

    Dick Heederick

Authors
  1. Laura Stöcklin
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  2. Georg Loss
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  3. Erika von Mutius
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  4. Juliane Weber
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  5. Jon Genuneit
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  6. Elisabeth Horak
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  7. Barbara Sozanska
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  8. Hanna Danielewicz
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  9. Paul Cullinan
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  10. Dick Heederick
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  11. Charlotte Braun-Fahrländer
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Consortia

and the GABRIEL study group

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Charlotte Braun-Fahrländer.

Appendix

Appendix

The members of the GABRIEL study group are in alphabetical order:

Silvia Apprich Ph.D.G, Andrzej BoznanskiK, Gisela Büchele MPHC, William Cookson M.D. D.Phil.A,, Anna DębińskaK, Martin Depner Ph.D.B, Markus Ege M.D.B, Urs Frey M.D., Ph.D.L, Oliver Fuchs M.D.L, Anne Hyvärinen Ph.D.H, Sabina Illi Ph.D.B, Michael Kabesch M.D.N, Katalin KovacsM, Aleksandra Kosmęda Ph.D.K, Wolfgang Kneifel Ph.D.G, Philipp Latzin M.D. Ph.D.L, Roger Lauener M.D.P, Stephanie MacNeill M.Sc.A, Bernhard Morass M.D.M, Anne-Cécile NormandI, Ilka Noss Ph.D.F, Renaud Piarroux M.D. Ph.D.I, Helena Rintala Ph.D.H, Mascha K. Rochat M.D.Q, Nikolaos SitaridisC, David Strachan M.D.O, Christine Strunz-Lehner MPHB, Bertrand Sudre M.D. Ph.D.I, Marco Waser Ph.D.D,E, Inge Wouters Ph.D.F

  1. A.

    Imperial College London, National Heart and Lung Institute, London, United Kingdom

  2. B.

    University Children’s Hospital, LMU Munich, Munich, Germany

  3. C.

    Ulm University, Institute of Epidemiology and Medical Biometry, Ulm, Germany

  4. D.

    Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, Basel, Switzerland

  5. E.

    University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland

  6. F.

    Utrecht University, Institute for Risk Assessment Sciences (IRAS), Division of Environmental Epidemiology, Utrecht, The Netherlands

  7. G.

    BOKU Vienna, University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences, Department of Food Science and Technology, Vienna, Austria

  8. H.

    THL Kuopio, National Institute for Health and Welfare, Kuopio, Finland

  9. I.

    Université de Franche-Comté, UMR 6249 Chrono-Environnement, Département de Parasitologie/Mycologie, UFR SMP, Besançon, France

  10. J.

    Wroclaw Medical University, 1st Department of Paediatrics, Allergology and Cardiology, Wroclaw, Poland

  11. K.

    Division of Pulmonology, Department of Paediatrics, Bern University Hospital, Switzerland

  12. L.

    Department of Pediatrics and Adolescents, Division of Cardiology and Pulmonology, Innsbruck Medical University, Innsbruck, Austria

  13. M.

    Hannover Medical School, Clinic for Paediatric Pneumology and Neonatology, Hannover, Germany

  14. N.

    St George’s Hospital, University of London, London, United Kingdom

  15. O.

    High Mountain Hospital Davos, Davos, Switzerland

  16. P.

    Département médico-chirurgical de pédiatrie, CHUV, Lausanne, Switzerland

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Stöcklin, L., Loss, G., von Mutius, E. et al. Health-related quality of life in rural children living in four European countries: the GABRIEL study. Int J Public Health 58, 355–366 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00038-012-0410-9

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