Socio-Economic Inequalities in Health-Related Quality of Life Among Iranian Adolescents

Abstract

Background: One of the main concerns of public health is increasing inequality of health status, that has adverse effect on people's life. The aim of the current study is to analyze the role of socio-economic factors as a predictor of health-related quality of life (QoL) among Iranian adolescence. Method: A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted on 576 adolescents aged 15 to 18 years, in Zanjan province from December 2020 to February 2021. The samples were selected using the Multi-stage sampling method. Data were collected by a demographic checklist, and KIDSCREEN-52 questionnaire and analyzed by SPSS ver.16. The Health Equity Assessment Toolkit (HEAT) Version 4.0 (beta) was used to assess adolescents' QoL inequalities in terms of socio-economic subgroups. Result: The results show that, 27.2 adolescents had low quality of life. The score of physical and autonomy components of QoL were significantly more in male versus school environment in female students. Also, the asset, father's, and mother's education, and family income in female students, and the asset and family income in male students were significantly related with the quality-of-life (p<0.05). The risk of lower QOL in the poorest quintile was 1.32 times more than in the richest quintile. The consideration index of Asset in terms of sex was 4.5 and the modified Gini index was more than 0.5 in females and males. Conclusion: Our findings highlight the significant effects of socio-economic inequality on HRQL of Iranian adolescence. Requires a targeted policy approach to reach the poorest quintile for improving the quality of life of adolescents.