Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #108008

Haomiao Jia, PhD and William Bina, MD, MPH. Department of Community Medicine, Mercer University School of Medicine, 1550 College Street, Macon, GA 31207, 478-301-4179, haomia@yahoo.com

BACKGROUND: Seasonal variations in mortality and morbidity statistics are reported in the literature, including clinical patterns of suicide and depression. Assessing the population health-related quality-of-life (HRQL) may be affected by the time of year when data were collected. However, investigations of seasonal patterns of HRQL using both population-based and clinical data show inconsistent results, particularly the mental health component of HRQL.

METHODS: This study examined overall seasonal patterns of HRQL using both the additive and multiplicative seasonal variation models of time-series analysis by separating seasonal variations from time trend effects. Data were from the 1996-2004 Behavior Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS. Respondents were asked about the number of days during last 30 days that their physical and mental health were not good, and usual activity was limited. We calculated the overall mean monthly healthy days after adjusting the trend effect for each of the 12 months of a year.

RESULTS: Data show a worsening trend of HRQL. After adjustment, the mean physical unhealthy days and activity limitation days were approximately 12%-20% higher during the winter than summer months, while the mean mental unhealthy days were approximately 5% higher during spring and fall months.

CONCLUSION: Large and consistent seasonal variations of HRQL were observed by separating the seasonal trend effect from trend effect alone. The time of year when data are collected may affect respondents' perceived health. Adjustment of this seasonal effect may be needed when assessing a population's health status.

Learning Objectives:

• Recognize the strengths of using Behavior Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) to measure population based health-related quality of life (HRQOL) using the Healthy Days measures
• Analyze the seasonal pattern of HRQOL with the adjustment of the trend effect.

Keywords: Surveillance, Quality of Life

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.

Recorded presentation