Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Letter to the Editor
  • Published:

Is utility-based quality of life in children aged 6–7 years affected by Body Mass Index (BMI)?

International Journal of Obesity volume 38, page 1146 (2014)Cite this article

Subjects

As health-care resources are scarce, there is a need for obesity-prevention interventions to demonstrate cost-effectiveness. The conventional unit of metric used to demonstrate cost-effectiveness is the Quality-Adjusted Life Year (QALY), whereby health-related quality of life (HRQL) is expressed on a 0–1 scale (often referred to as a ‘utility’ value) and combined with duration in that health state.1, 2 Little is known about the relationship between ‘utility-based quality of life’ and the weight status of children, and this is compounded by the challenging nature of measuring utility in a pediatric population more generally.3

As part of a pilot study to inform the design of a full randomized controlled trial, we interview-administered two newly developed pediatric preference-based utility instruments: the Child Health Utility 9D (CHU-9D)4 and the EuroQol 5D-Youth (EQ-5D-Y)5 to 160 children (aged 6 to 7 years) from six schools across the West Midlands, England, UK. Height and weight data were collected to measure body mass index (BMI), which was then directly assessed against HRQL as measured by the CHU-9D and the EQ-5D-Y. The children were assigned to weight status groups using the 1990 BMI cutoffs6 as recommended by NICE.7 Equality of HRQL was tested between weight status groups to test for differences in the mean preference-based HRQL.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

References

  1. NICE. 2004. Guide to the Methods of Technology Appraisal. Available Online: http://www.nice.org.uk/niceMedia/pdf/TAP_Methods.pdf.

  2. NICE. 2008. Guide to the Methods of Technology Appraisal. Available Online: http://www.nice.org.uk/media/B52/A7/TAMethodsGuideUpdatedJune2008.pdf.

  3. Petrou S . Methodological issues raised by preference-based approaches to measuring the health status of children. Health Econ 2003; 12: 697–702.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Stevens K . Working with children to develop dimensions for a preference based generic paediatric health related quality of life measures. Qual Health Res 2010; 20: 340–351.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Wille N, Badia Xea . Development of the EQ-5D-Y: a child-friendly version of the EQ-5D. Qual Life Res 2010; 19: 875–886.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Cole T, Freeman J, Preece M . Body mass index reference curves for the UK, 1990. Arch Dis Childhood 1995; 73: 25–29.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. NICE. 2006. Obesity guidance on the prevention, identification, assessment and management of overweight and obesity in adults and children. Available at http://www.nice.org.uk/CG43 (last accessed 16th July 2003).

  8. Ottova V, Erhart M, Rajmil L, Dettenborn-Betz L, Ravens-Sieberer U . Overweight and its impact on the health-related quality of life in children and adolescents: results from the European KIDSCREEN survey. Qual Life Res 2012; 21: 59–69.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Health Economics Unit, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK

    A G Canaway & E J Frew

Authors
  1. A G Canaway
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. E J Frew
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Consortia

on behalf of the WAVES trial investigators

Corresponding author

Correspondence to E J Frew.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Canaway, A., Frew, E. & on behalf of the WAVES trial investigators. Is utility-based quality of life in children aged 6–7 years affected by Body Mass Index (BMI)?. Int J Obes 38, 1146 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/ijo.2013.219

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ijo.2013.219

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links