Health-related quality of life in children and adolescents with primary hypertension: a hospital-based cross-sectional study.

Introduction: Primary hypertension in childhood is increasingly recognized as an important health issue, but its impact on health-related quality of life (HRQoL) has not been well studied. Methods: In this cross-sectional study conducted at the Pediatric Nephrology Department of Ege University Medical Center between June and December 2021, the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory™ (PedsQL) 4.0 was administered face-to-face to 22 children and adolescents with primary hypertension and 31 healthy controls, along with their parents. Data were analyzed using IBM SPSS version 26. Results: A total of 53 children and their parents were included. Compared with healthy controls, the primary hypertension group demonstrated significantly lower parent-reported physical health total scores, parent total PedsQL scores, and child physical health total scores. No statistically significant differences were observed between the groups in several other PedsQL subdomains. No significant differences were found in HRQoL scores according to BMI groups or treatment types. Conclusion: Children and adolescents with primary hypertension demonstrated lower health-related quality of life scores, particularly in physical health-related domains, compared with healthy controls. These findings suggest that primary hypertension may be associated with impaired quality of life in pediatric patients. Larger, multicenter, longitudinal studies are needed to validate these results.