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Research on the health-related quality of life (HrQoL) impact of short stature and its treatment in children and adolescents has developed recently. Based on a PubMed literature search, studies addressing this issue were identified and considerable methodological problems mainly related to the HrQoL instruments used and conflicting results are discussed in this mini review. Additionally, this mini review identifies a need for further research and indicates potential directions.

The concept of health-related quality of life (HrQoL) reflects the subjective perception of health and includes aspects of well-being and functioning in physical, emotional, mental and social life domains. Nowadays, HrQoL has become a relevant treatment outcome from epidemiological and clinical perspectives and is also broadly employed in health economic analyses. To assess HrQoL generic as well as condition-specific instruments are used. The former are applicable to a wide range of health conditions and aim at measuring HrQoL across different conditions. The latter focus on capturing the impact of a specific disease. Although HrQoL research in adults is now well-advanced, there are still open questions regarding how to assess HrQoL in pediatric conditions, such as short stature. Eight generic (one chronic-generic) and seven condition-specific (one treatment-specific) instruments used in HrQoL research in short stature of youth are described. Additionally, this mini review identifies a need for further research and indicates potential directions.