Quality of life and pain by Adolescents and their Parents

You may follow the disputation online. Link for registration as an online spectator at the bottom of this page.

The disputation will be held in Scandinavian languages.

Hilde Elisabeth Timenes Mikkelsen of the Faculty of and Sciences at the University of Agder has submitted her thesis entitled «The Start Young study Health-related quality of life and pain in adolescents and associated factors; a prospective cohort study of adolescents and their parents» and will defend the thesis for the PhD-degree Thursday 15 December 2022. 

She has followed the PhD programme at the Faculty of Health and Sport Sciences with Specialisation in Health and Sport Sciences.

Summary of the thesis by Hilde Elisabeth Timenes Mikkelsen:

Quality of life and pain by Adolescents and their Parents

Having good health-related quality of life (HRQOL) during adolescence is important, and a significant part of the foundation for HRQOL later in life is laid here.

Increasing health complaints

Previous studies show that an increasing number of adolescents report health complaints such as pain. This may lead to reduced HRQOL.

To better understand HRQOL and pain in adolescents, it is important to investigate factors associated with HRQOL.

Increased understanding of factors associated with HRQOL can improve the ability to develop evidence-based health promotion and intervention programs and help to identify adolescents who need support and help

Prospective cohort study

The overall aim of the thesis was to expand our knowledge of HRQOL and pain by investigating sociodemographic, psychosocial, pain-, sleep-, health literacy and COVID-19-related factors associated with HRQOL in a school-based sample of Norwegian adolescents and their parents during two years of youth.

The thesis is based on a prospective cohort study among adolescents and their parents, from when the adolescents were 14 to 16 years of age.

At the first data collection, 696 adolescents and 561 parents participated.

In the second data collection (two years later), 215 adolescents and 320 parents participated.

Four papers

Four papers are related to the thesis, of which Papers I-III are based on cross-sectional data and Paper IV is based on longitudinal data.

Paper I showed that 14–15-year-old adolescents reported high HRQOL.

Girls scored worse on HRQOL, self-efficacy, self-esteem, pain, sleep, loneliness and stress compared to boys.

Self-efficacy, self-esteem, loneliness, and stress were most strongly associated with HRQOL in adolescents.

Paper II showed that 14–15-year-old adolescents with pain reported more stress, loneliness and lack of sleep and lower self-esteem, self-efficacy and HRQOL compared to adolescents without pain.

More girls than boys reported pain.

In adolescents with persistent pain, we found that the associations between pain intensity and HRQOL were mediated by self-esteem, but not by self-efficacy.

Paper III showed that the HRQOL of 16–17-year-old adolescents was reduced one year into the COVID-19 pandemic compared to findings from previous studies.

Parents' HRQOL was comparable to Norwegian norms prior to the pandemic.

Further results showed that gender, health literacy, and COVID-19-related worries were associated with adolescents' and parents' HRQOL.

Paper IV showed a reduction in adolescents' HRQOL from the age of 14 to 16

years.

Further results showed that stress, loneliness, and pain contributed to lower HRQOL scores at age 16 compared to age 14, while self-efficacy and self-esteem contributed to higher HRQOL scores.

Self-efficacy and self-esteem important resilience factors

The thesis provides insight into how sociodemographic, psychosocial, pain-, sleep-, health literacy- and COVID-19-related factors are associated with various HRQOL dimensions related to their present HRQOL and changes in their HRQOL and emphasizes the importance of considering and facilitating self-efficacy and self-esteem as important resilience factors for adolescents’ HRQOL.

Furthermore, the thesis provides insight into pain problems among adolescents. An individual, holistic approach to adolescent pain and increased focus of resilience factors associated with adolescent pain is recommended.

Disputation facts:

The trial lecture and the public defence will take place in Gabriel Scotts Auditorium B1 001, Campus Kristiansand and online via the Zoom conferencing app - registration link below.

Dean, Professor Anders Johan Wickstrøm Andersen, Faculty of Health and Sport Sciences, University of  Agder,  will chair the disputation.

The trial lecture Thursday 15 December at 09:00 hours

Public defense Thursday 15 December at 10:30 hours

 

Given topic for trial lecture: «When can we talk about evidence for causality in medicine and public health science?»

Thesis Title: «The Start Young study Health-related quality of life and pain in adolescents and associated factors; a prospective cohort study of adolescents and their parents»

Search for the thesis in AURA - Agder University Research Archive, a digital archive of scientific papers, theses and dissertations from the academic staff and students at the University of Agder.

The thesis is available here:

PhD-thesis Hilde E. T. Mikkelsen_nov 2022

  

The Candidate: Hilde Elisabeth Timenes Mikkelsen (1985, Kristiansand) Bachelors degree in Nursing, University of Agder (2008) and Masters degree in Health Informatics, University of Agder (2013). Work practise as a Nurse at the Palliative Unit at Sørlandets hospital 2008 – 2015. Present position (from 2015): Assistant Professor at the Department of Health and Nursing Sciences at UiA.

Opponents:

First opponent: Associate Professor Solveig Petersen, Department of Epidemiology and Global Health, Umeå University, Sweden, 

Second opponent: Research Professor Ragnhild Bang Nes, Norwegian Institute of Public Health

Professor Bjørge Herman Hansen, Department of Sport Science and Physical Education, Faculty of Health and Sport Sciences, University of  Agder,  is appointed as the administrator for the assessment committee.

Supervisors in the doctoral work were Professor Gudrun Elin Rohde, Department of Health and Nursing Sciences, University of Agder (main supervisor). Professor Kristin Haraldstad, UiA, 

Adjunct Professor Sølvi Helseth, UiA - see also Vice Dean RnD, Professor at the Faculty of Health Sciences Sølvi Helseth, Oslo Metropolitan University and Associate Professor Siv Skarstein, Oslo Metropolitan University, (co-supervisors)

What to do as an online audience member:

The disputation is open to the public, but to follow the trial lecture and the public defence online, transmitted via the Zoom conferencing app, you have to register as an audience member on this link:

https://uiano.zoom.us/meeting/register/u5Erc-urrzkvG9Ab2cgMbGSxyR6B_cEN0zZU

A Zoom-link will be returned to you. (Here are introductions for how to use Zoom: support.zoom.us if you cannot join by clicking on the link.)

We ask online audience members to join the virtual trial lecture at 08:50 at the earliest and the public defense at 10:20 at the earliest. After these times, you can leave and rejoin the meeting at any time. Further, we ask online audience members to turn off their microphone and camera and keep them turned off throughout the event. You do this at the bottom left of the image when in Zoom. We recommend you use ‘Speaker view’. You select that at the top right corner of the video window when in Zoom.

Opponent ex auditorio:

The chair invites members of the public to pose questions ex auditorio in the introduction to the public defense. Deadline is during the break between the two opponents. The person asking questions should have read the thesis. For online audience the Contact Persons e-mail are available in the chat function during the Public Defense, and questions ex auditorio can be submitted to Eli Margareth Andås on e-mail eli.andas@uia.no.