The relationship between gender, psychosocial factors, pain, health literacy and health-related quality of life in parents of Norwegian adolescents one year into the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

Abstract Background Stress impacts healthy behaviours and may influence life and health-related quality of life (HRQOL). A stressful event occurred when the COVID-19 pandemic hit in March 2020. The present study aims to explore possible gender differences in stress, psychosocial factors (self-efficacy, self-esteem, loneliness), pain, HL, and HRQOL in parents of adolescents one year into the COVID-19 pandemic, and to explore possible associations between gender, demographic and psychosocial factors, pain, HL, and HRQOL. Methods Parents of adolescents aged 16–17 took part in the study from January to February 2021, when the COVID-19 pandemic was ongoing. Data on socio-demographics, stress, self-efficacy, self-esteem, pain, HL, loneliness, and HRQOL were collected. HRQOL was assessed using RAND-36. Results Among the 320 parents from the general population, the mean age was 47.6 (standard deviation (SD) = 4.6) years, 81% were mothers, 79% were married or cohabiting, 81% had a university degree, and the majority worked full time (78%) or part time (13%). The average pain score was low, 0.48 (95% CI [0.43–0.54]). However, 50% of the parents reported persistent pain and more mothers reported persistent pain compared to fathers (53% vs. 37%). The parents’ mean (SD) score for RAND-36 was 52.1 (95% CI [51.2–53.0]) for the physical component summary (PCS) score and 51.0 (95% CI [50.0–52.1]) for the mental component summary (MCS) score. Mothers reported significantly lower scores for all the eight RAND-36 domains and the PCS and MCS scores. Adjusting for gender, age, living condition, education, pain, HL, self-efficacy and loneliness, we revealed no associations between stress and RAND-36-PCS. University education of four years or more was positively associated (B = 3.29, 95% CI: [0.78–5.80]) with RAND-36-PCS, while persistent pain was negatively associated (B = -7.13, CI: [-9.20– -5.06]). We identified a strong negative association between RAND-36-MCS and stress (B = -43.11, CI: [-48.83– -37.38]) and a positive association with older age (B = 0.21, CI: [ 0.04, 0.39)]. Conclusion One year into the COVID-19 pandemic, we identified a strong negative association between stress and mental HRQOL, while pain was strongly negatively associated with physical HRQOL.