Do body esteem and quality of life scores change with puberty signs or precocious puberty treatment?

Objectives: Body esteem (BE) and quality of life (QOL) of girls aged 9-11 years may change depending on their puberty. We aimed to examine The Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory 4.0 (PedsQL 4.0) and the Body Esteem for Adolescents and Adults Scale (BESAA) for children.

Methods: The groups were determined as those whose puberty signs had not yet started (Group 1), those having with breast development stage 3 and/or larger (Group 2), and those who had received gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonist (GnRHa) treatment for at least 6 months (Group 3).

Results: A total of 145 girls (Group 1: 41, Group 2: 56, Group 3: 48), were included. The PedsQL scores of the Group 1 was higher than Group 2 (78.5 ± 10.3 vs. 70.1 ± 14.2; p=0.008). The PedsQL scores of the Group 1 was higher but not statistically different from Group 3 (78.5 ± 10.3 vs. 74.2 ± 14.3; p=0.401). The PedsQL scores of Group 2 was not statistically different from Group 3 (p=0.354). There was no statistical difference in BESAA scores between groups (p=0.291). Group 1's PedsQL Health and Activity subscale score was higher than Group 2 (p=0.002).

Conclusion: The QOL of the girls with PP was found to be lower than their healthy peers. Health and Activity-related QOL scores were found to be lower in the untreated group, indicating that girls with PP were probably significantly disturbed by their puberty-related physical development at the onset of the disease.