Do relative socioeconomic deprivations impact on subjective health-related quality of life and behaviors among adolescents?

Socioeconomic deprivations include relative parent-education, family structure, nationality, parentoccupation and income that could impact on subjective well-being among adolescents which then persists in adulthood. In an early adolescence context, this study assessed the associations of the previous factors with subjective health-related quality of life (QoL) and behaviors. Methods: Questionnaires were completed by 1559 middle-school adolescents from north-eastern France (mean age 13.5 (SD 1.3) years) including: sex, age, family structure, parent-education/income/occupation, last-30-day tobacco/alcohol/cannabis/hard-drug consumption, sports activities, victim of violence, sexual abuse, violenceimplication, suicidal ideation, social supports, and WHOQoL (4 domains physical, psychological, socialrelationship,
and environment; <10th percentile value). Data were analyzed using logistic models which yield adjusted odds ratios (OR, sex/age taken into account). Results: Low WHOQoL-physical, WHOQoL-psychological, WHOQoL-social-relationship and WHOQoLenvironment affected 14.1%, 9.6%, 16.1%, and 12.6%, respectively. Last-30-day tobacco/alcohol/cannabis/harddrug
uses affected 11.2%, 35.2%, 5.6%, and 2.8%, respectively. WHOQoL-physical significantly related to parent low-education (OR=1.59), reconstructed-family (1.98, vs. intact-family), divorced/separated-parents (1.85), nonliving-with-parent (2.44), non-European-nationality (2.31), and insufficient-income (1.50). WHOQoLpsychological related to reconstructed-family (OR=1.91), divorced/separated parents (1.98), and insufficientincome (1.62). WHOQoL-social-relationship related to divorced/separated-parents (1.89), non-European nationality
(4.58), and insufficient-income (1.36). WHOQoL-environment related to parent-low-education
(OR=2.01), reconstructed-family (1.80), divorced/separated parents (3.25), single-parent-family (1.88), non-living with-parent (2.13), non-European-nationality (3.33), and insufficient-income (1.71). Last-30-day tobacco/alcohol/cannabis/hard-drug uses related to family-structure, European-non-French-nationality, and insufficient-income with great OR-variations across substances (up to 5.30). Parent-low-education was negatively linked with alcohol use (0.70). Regarding parent-occupation risks were lower for cannabis use among clerk/manual-worker-family (ORs about 0.30) and higher for intermediate-professional-family (1.88) and
craftsman/tradesman/firm-head-family (2.02). These associations were mediated by school-performance, sports activity, obesity, sexual abuse, violence, suicidal ideation, and social support. Conclusion: Relative socioeconomic deprivations highly impact on adolescent’s subjective well-being. Risk patterns are complex and greatly vary between quality of life domains and substance uses. Since early ages adolescent’s well-being should be assessed/monitored with school-doctor-family cooperation.