doi:10.1155/2012/975364 Research Article Physical, Cognitive, and Psychosocial Predictors of

Copyright © 2012 Molly M. Garwood et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Objective. To examine physical, cognitive, and social-emotional predictors of quality of life (HRQOL) and functional disability (FD) in adolescents diagnosed with Neurofibromatosis-1. Methods. Participants were twenty-seven adolescents with a diagnosis of NF-1 who were recruited through an NF-1 specialty clinic at a large Midwestern children’s hospital. Measurements of the adolescents ’ cognitive functioning, pain, FD, HRQOL, and social and emotional functioning were obtained with corresponding parent measures. Results. Emotional functioning significantly predicted youth-reported and parent-reported HRQOL, whereas days of pain significantly predicted youth-reported FD. Conclusions. NF-1 is a complex disease. Measurements of the overall impact of the disease tap into different aspects of the effects of NF-1 on daily life. Global outcomes such as HRQOL appear to be influenced especially by emotional functioning, whereas outcomes such as FD appear to be influenced by the physical/organic aspects of NF-1. 1