In the last few years, research has shown that overweight children and adolescents experience a
lower health-related quality-of-life (HRQL) [30,33,35]. Quality of Life includes the social, emotional,
and physical functioning of a person [36].
Recently, we reported [30] that severely obese children and adolescents had a lower HRQL
than healthy children and adolescents. We also compared these severely obese children and adolescents
with children and adolescents with cancer because cancer is a chronic health condition
with known impaired HRQL. We observed that the severely obese children and adolescents had a
similar HRQL as the children and adolescents diagnosed with cancer. Although obese children and
adolescents may also experience physical limitations and teasing from peers, they are often not
exposed to the intense medical interventions (and subsequent adverse effects) that are common in
pediatric cancer. Thus, the impaired HRQL of the obese sample was an unexpected and significant
finding [30]. This impaired HRQL can cause difficulties in keeping up with peers and maintaining
normal activities [37] and can also result in teasing and withdrawal from peers at school [36]. Such
changes can be seen in school-aged children with mild obesity.
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