Association of Perceived Weight Status and Health-Related Quality of Life in Children and Adolescents: the Weight Disorder Survey of the CASPIAN- IV Study

Background: This study investigates the association of perceived weight status and health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in a representative sample of Iranian children and adolescents. Materials and Methods: In this study, 6-18-year-old students were selected from 30 provinces of Iran. Weight status and perceived weight status of students were determined by physical examination and using the validated questionnaire of the World Health Organization-Global school-based student health survey, respectively. The students’ HRQL was evaluated by the Persian version of the Pediatric Quality of Life inventory (PedsQL™ 4.0TM 4.0) Generic Core Scales. Results: The participants consisted of 23,043 students with mean (standard deviation [SD]) age of 12.55(3.31) years. Underweight was significantly less prevalent than perceived underweight (30.8%vs 10.0%, respectively, P