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Childhood chronic physical condition, self-reported health, and life satisfaction in adolescence

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Abstract

The present study investigates the prevalence and type of chronic conditions at 7 years of age—with special reference to atopic conditions—and their longitudinal associations with self-reported health and life satisfaction in adolescence. The data were obtained from Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1986 (NFBC 1986), which is a longitudinal 1-year birth cohort from an unselected, regionally defined population (n = 9,432). The present study investigated a sample of 8,036 children with data of chronic conditions at 7 years of age and a sample of 6,680 children with data of chronic conditions at 16 years of age. According to parents’ report the prevalence of CC at 7 years of age was 14.8 % among boys and 13.2 % among girls, these figures being at 16 years of age 20.7 and 19.4 %, respectively. Atopic conditions were the most common chronic conditions at 7 years of age (12.7 % vs. other chronic conditions 4.7 %). Childhood chronic condition was associated with subsequent self-reported health in adolescence, but not with subsequent self-reported life satisfaction. Chronic condition at 7 years of age increased the risk of reporting health as “poor” even if the chronic condition was no longer prevalent at 16 years of age. Atopic conditions seemed to be linked with self-reported poor/moderate health more often than other chronic conditions among girls. Conclusion Childhood chronic conditions seem to affect adolescent’s subjective health, but fortunately, they do not affect adolescents’ subjective well-being to such an extent that it could lower their life satisfaction.

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Abbreviations

A16:

Adolescence

C7:

7 Years old

CC:

Chronic condition

CCs:

Chronic conditions

CI:

Confidence interval

CP:

Cerebral palsy

LS:

Life satisfaction

OR:

Odds ratio

QOL:

Quality of life

SRH:

Self-reported health

T1D:

Type 1 diabetes

YSR:

Youth Self-Report

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Health Sciences, University of Oulu, P.O. Box 5000, Oulu, 90014, Finland

    Heidi Määttä, Tuula Hurtig & Anja Taanila

  2. Institute of Clinical Medicine, Department of Child Psychiatry, University and University Hospital of Oulu, Oulu, Finland

    Tuula Hurtig & Hanna Ebeling

  3. Primary Health Care Unit, University Hospital of Oulu, Oulu, Finland

    Anja Taanila

  4. Department of Teacher Education, University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio, Finland

    Meri Honkanen

  5. Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland

    Heli Koivumaa-Honkanen

  6. Department of Psychiatry, Lapland Hospital District, Oulu, Finland

    Heli Koivumaa-Honkanen

  7. Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio, Finland

    Heli Koivumaa-Honkanen

  8. Department of Psychiatry, Kuopio University Hospital, Kuopio, Finland

    Heli Koivumaa-Honkanen

  9. Department of Psychiatry, South-Savonia Hospital District, Mikkeli, Finland

    Heli Koivumaa-Honkanen

  10. Department of Psychiatry, North Karelia Central Hospital, Joensuu, Finland

    Heli Koivumaa-Honkanen

  11. Department of Psychiatry, SOSTERI, Savonlinna, Finland

    Heli Koivumaa-Honkanen

  12. Department of Psychiatry, SOTE, Iisalmi, Finland

    Heli Koivumaa-Honkanen

Authors
  1. Heidi Määttä
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  2. Tuula Hurtig
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  3. Anja Taanila
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  4. Meri Honkanen
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  5. Hanna Ebeling
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  6. Heli Koivumaa-Honkanen
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Correspondence to Heidi Määttä.

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Määttä, H., Hurtig, T., Taanila, A. et al. Childhood chronic physical condition, self-reported health, and life satisfaction in adolescence. Eur J Pediatr 172, 1197–1206 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00431-013-2015-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00431-013-2015-6

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