Does health-related quality of life predict injury event?

ABSTRACT

Unintentional injury is a leading threat to children's health. Some human factors have been determined as predictor of unintentional injury. Association between Health-Related Quality of Life [HRQOL] as a human factor an unintentional injuries is unclear. The objective of study is to examine the association between HRQOL and unintentional injuries among primary school children. This study was a cross-sectional conducted in Ahwaz, a city in Iran. Overall, 3375 children aged 6-10 years were randomly selected from primary school. HRQOL was measured by 56 items taken from seven domains of Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research Academic Medical Center [TNO AZL] child quality of life [TACQOL] parent form. Parents were interviewed to collect information about incidence, cause and a brief description of injury within the past 12 months prior to the study. The response rate was 3375 of 3792 [98%]. There was a significant trend for increasing occurrence of injury with decreasing of HRQOL score [P<0.001]. Adjusted OR for injury was significantly higher in very low [2.38, 95% CI 1.45-3.86], low [2.18, 95% CI 1.34-3.56], and medium [1.73, 95% CI 1.06-2.83] HRQOL groups compared to reference group [very high HRQOL]. The median of total HRQOL [P<0.001] and all its domains [P=0.017] [except autonomous functioning] was lower in injured group compared to uninjured one. This study found an association between HRQOL and unintentional injury among primary school children. This is a preliminary finding and further investigations with a well-defined analytical design are needed