Structural Equation Modeling for Identifying Factors Affecting Health-Related Quality of Life among School Children in Klang, Selangor

The study of Quality of Life (QoL) issues can ultimately help people especially for primary school children to live more meaningful and enjoyable lives. It will also help parents to better understand a child's life experiences, in the context of the child's whole life. Development of appropriate counseling and educational programs by policy makers can be designed to minimize the potential harmful impact of physical, emotional, social and school functioning and its management on QoL among children. Assessing Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) among children 8 to 11 years old might be helpful for parents to take preventive action early in the children's life and development whereby HRQoL is a multi-dimensional concept that includes domains related to physical, mental, emotional and social functioning. Therefore, Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) is usedin this study to determine factors affecting HRQoL among school children in Klang, Selangor. Primary data wereemployed in this study and 204 school children responded to the PedsQL 4.0 Generic Scale Score questionnaire. SEM analysis indicated that the measurement model was valid, reliable and achieved an acceptable level of goodness-of-fit. The study indicated that school functioning contributed most to Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) followed by social functioning, physical functioning and emotion functioning. The findings of the study suggested that schools management should monitor continuously children activities and develop school-based programs to get better HRQoL score.