Investigation into factors that predict health-related quality of life in adolescents with inflammatory bowel disease

OBJECTIVES: The main aim of this research was to investigate factors which predict Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQOL) in adolescents with Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD). A secondary aim was to investigate agreement between parent reported and adolescent reported HRQOL. A further aim was to investigate gender differences in reported HRQOL.METHOD: Fifty-seven adolescents with IBD attending a Gastroenterology outpatients' clinic completed measures of anxiety (Spence Children's Anxiety Scale), depression (Beck Depression Inventory), self esteem (Rosenberg Self Esteem Scale), parental overprotection (Parental Bonding Instrument) and HRQOL (Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory -PedQL). Parents completed measures of anxiety (Beck Anxiety Inventory), depression (Beck Depression Inventory) and the parent version of the PedsQL.RESULTS: Adolescent and parental psycho-social functioning and maternal overprotection were found to be significantly associated with HRQOL outcomes. Regression analysis indicated that gender, individual psychological functioning and parental functioning as a whole predicted HRQOL outcomes. Agreement on parent and self reported HRQOL was moderate to good across all domains. Females reported poorer HRQOL than males on domains of physical, social and psycho¬ social functioningCONCLUSIONS: This study highlights the influence of individual and parental factors on the quality of life of adolescents with IBD. Clinical and theoretical implications of these findings are discussed