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Longitudinal study on health-related quality of life among child and adolescent survivors of the 2008 Sichuan earthquake

Abstract

Purpose  

To longitudinally characterize child survivors’ quality of life after a massive earthquake in low- and middle-income settings.

Methods  

Population-based surveys were conducted in the severely affected areas 15 and 36 months after the earthquake, using a multi-stage
systematic sampling design.

Results  

A total of 596 participants were included in the initial assessment, of which 430 were re-surveyed in the follow-up assessment.
For both assessments, means of the PedsQL total and subscale scores fell significantly below the general healthy children
(P < 0.05 for all comparisons). Reduction in PedsQL total scores was observed from the initial to the follow-up assessment (82.2
vs. 80.3, P = 0.01). In regression analysis, mental health symptoms were examined as the biggest contributors for PedsQL scores, and
girls and older children were found to report lower PedsQL scores than their counterparts.

Conclusions  

Health-related quality of life among child and adolescent survivors decreased over time. Besides helping children with identified
risk experiences, attention should also be allocated to children without specific traumatic experiences, since the earthquake
may have a delayed effect on them.

  • Content Type Journal Article
  • Pages 1-8
  • DOI 10.1007/s11136-012-0201-z
  • Authors
    • Wenhua Tian, Department of Health Service Management, Second Military Medical University, Shanghai, 200433 China
    • Zhaobao Jia, Department of Health Service Management, Second Military Medical University, Shanghai, 200433 China
    • Guangfeng Duan, Department of Health Service Management, Second Military Medical University, Shanghai, 200433 China
    • Weizhi Liu, Department of Psychology, Second Military Medical University, Shanghai, China
    • Xiao Pan, Department of Psychology, Second Military Medical University, Shanghai, China
    • Qiang Guo, Department of Training, Second Military Medical University, Shanghai, China
    • Ru Chen, Department of Health Service Management, Second Military Medical University, Shanghai, 200433 China
    • Xue Zhang, Department of Health Service Management, Second Military Medical University, Shanghai, 200433 China