Abstract
BACKGROUND: From the 1950s, the quality of life criterion came to be studied in earnest, originally forming a part of measurement of human development in Western Europe and the USA. The present study aims to compare the health-related quality of life (HRQL) between children with nasal septum deviation and healthy children controls. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Subjects were children suffering from nasal septum deviation, one of the commonest chronic diseases of the upper respiratory tract. Controls were randomly recruited from kindergarten, primary and secondary schools (junior high school & high school). All schools and subjects were randomly selected. The CHQ-PF50 questionnaire was used and outcome scores were calculated by an algorithm for the 13 tested HRQL variables. RESULTS: Means for all outcome scores in the test subjects (i.e., children with deviated nasal septums) varied between 3.65-89.27 with a standard deviation between 0.83-25.66 and a median between 3.4-100 (n = 101). Those for the controls (n = 102) were 3.78-97.11, 0.86-14.21 and 4.40-100, respectively. Test subjects showed significant scoring declines in Physical Fitness, Role/Social-Emotional/Behavioral, Role/Social-Physical, Mental Health, Self-esteem, General Health Perceptions, Parental Impact Emotional and Time and Family Limitations in Activities. CONCLUSIONS: 1. The well-being of children with nasal septum deviation was found to be chiefly limited by their physical fitness, effects of physical condition on social behavior/interaction and how health is perceived. 2. Parents considered their children's health to be paramount, as demonstrated by assessing the HRQL.