Health-related quality of life among adolescents with allergy-like conditions – with emphasis on food hypersensitivity

Table 4 Comparison of SF-36 scores between adolescents with and without allergy-like conditions and between females and males with allergy-like conditions

	Allergy-like conditions		No such conditions			Females with allergy-like conditions		Males with allergy-like conditions
	N = 931		N = 520			N = 501		N = 412
SF-36 health scales¹	Mean	SD	Mean	SD	p-value	Mean	SD	Mean	SD	p-value
Physical dimension
Physical functioning (PF)	91.1	16.4	91.7	19.1	NS	91.1	13.8	91.2	18.8	NS
Role functioning-physical (RP)	75.7	31.3	83.2	27.2	<0.001	73.6	31.5	78.4	30.4	<0.05
Bodily pain (BP)	71.3	23.6	81.2	20.3	<0.001	67.9	24.1	75.3	22.4	<0.001
General health (GH)	69.6	20.5	80.8	16.7	<0.001	66.3	21.1	73.5	19.2	<0.001
Mental dimension
Vitality (VT)	53.0	21.0	62.2	21.0	<0.001	50.2	20.5	56.4	21.2	<0.001
Social functioning (SF)	81.3	21.6	86.9	18.9	<0.001	79.1	22.0	84.1	20.8	<0.001
Role functioning-emotional (RE)	65.4	40.3	75.4	36.8	<0.001	58.2	42.1	73.7	36.3	<0.001
Mental health (MH)	67.3	19.6	74.9	19.1	<0.001	62.7	20.2	72.8	17.4	<0.001

¹ Summary of contents of SF-36 health scales: Physical dimension: PF = Ability to perform daily physical activities, e. g. walking, running, lifting, and other moderate physical efforts; RP = Extent to which physical health limits work/daily activities; BP = Intensity of pain and its interference with normal activities; GH = Personal evaluation of general health status, presently and in the future.
Mental dimension: VT = Personal evaluation of energy, tiredness, etc; SF = Extent to which physical health or emotional problems interfere with normal social activities; RE = Extent to which emotional problems limit work/daily activities; MH = Personal evaluation of mental health, including anxiety, depression, and general positive and negative affects [27, 28].

ISSN: 1477-7525