Health-Related Quality of Life, Secondary School Students in Amphoe Mueang, Rayong Province, Thailand

Abstract

This cross-sectional study was conducted from 1st November 2010 to 31th December 2011 in three early secondary schools in Amphoe Mueang, Rayong province, Thailand, to assess the health-related quality of life (HRQOL) among secondary school students and identify the related factors with different geographic environment. The data were collected from 249 students in industrial area (zone A), 268 students in urban area (zone B), and 256 students in rural area (zone C) by simple random sampling. Students's health-related quality of life was self administered by using PedsQLTM.

The results showed that among 773 students aged between 13 and 15 years old, 16.1 percent of students had low health-related quality of life in zone A, 16.8 percent in zone B and 11.0 percent in zone C. The multiple linear regression revealed that only four variables: self-esteem, gender, family crisis, and zone of students (p-value < 0.05) could predict the total mean health-related quality of life scores.

Based on the study results, it is recommended that schools should conduct more programs of life skill developments in family, community and school, which enables students to manage different problems more effectively and enhance more health-related quality of life.