NUTRITIONAL STATUS AND HEALTH-RELATED LIFE QUALITY IN SCHOOL CHILDREN FROM THE SOUTHEAST OF SPAIN

Introduction and objective: Analyze the level of Life Quality (LQ) in relation to nutritional status in a sample of primary school children. Material and methods: Cross sectional study with 298 participants (53.35% female) of 8-12 years. LQ was assessed by the KIDSCREEN-10 questionnaire. Measures of weight and size were taken. The BMI (normal-weight, overweight and obesity) was categorized using standard criteria. To establish the relationship between the different statistical variables was performed the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test and analysis of variance. Results: Nutritional status was significantly correlated with LQ (F = 5.096; p =, 007). School children with a normal-weight state showed higher LQ levels compared to those overweight (p = .015) and obese (p =, 013). Conclusions: The results show that nutritional status acts as a differentiating factor in LQ. Adopting active lifestyle behaviours that promote a healthy nutritional status not only can have benefits over health biological parameters (such as physical condition) but can also contribute to improve other LQ indicators and mental health.