Abstract

TUESCA-MOLINA, Rafael et al. Health - related quality of life and socio-demographics determinants from adolescents in Barranquilla (Colombia). Salud, Barranquilla [online]. 2008, vol.24, n.1, pp.53-63. ISSN 0120-5552.

Objective: To evaluate the dimension about health - related quality of life and its relation with some sociodemographic determinants in school adolescents. Methods: Cross-sectional survey realized in the second semester of the 2007 to a sample of 845 students in public and private institutions of Barranquilla, Colombia, they answerd the Short Form Health Survey (SF12) adapted Spanish, and used a structured questionnaire that identified sociodemographic determinants. The tabulation of results was done in SPSS version 15 in Spanish. Results: The level of participation of the surveyed students with the questionnaire SF 12 was 98,8%, 57% of the subjects are from 14 to 15 years old. The quality of life related to the health shows differs in girls and boys. The women show better punctuation that the males in: general health 33,8 ±23,8; emotional role 64,9 ±42,9 and vitality 76,6 ±23,2. The males recount better punctuation in: physical function, 86,16 ± 25,9; physical role, 83,50 ±29,8; social function 78,09 ±29,4 and summing mental index 6 9,32 ±15,7. Discusion: The physical function is better in males, as the social function and the emotional role; nevertheless the women showed better vitality. As per social determinants, the physical function and social function show a higher score in private schools, yet the students of public schools show a higher score in general health; as the measure increases in the socioeconomic scale, the general health score increases. The findings above estimate a gender difference in the quality of life the indirect way to reflect the situation of the region and country regarding to perception of general and mental health.

Keywords : Quality of life; adolescents; school.

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