Aim: To evaluate the impact of living conditions in early childhood on the health-related quality of life (HRQL – Health-related Quality of Life) among 13-year-olds.

Material and methods: A prospective, three-phase study was carried out on the sample of 605 children born in January 1995 and on their parents. Standardized HRQL scores obtained from the Polish version of the CHQ-PF28 (Child Health Questionnaire Parent Form) questionnaire was used as outcome measure. Information on socioeconomic status was derived from: 1) the questionnaire completed by the parents in 1998 on living conditions and fulfilment of families’ material needs during the child’s first year of life; 2) the questionnaire completed by parents in 2008 – parents’ education and a subjective evaluation of family affluence; 3) the questionnaire completed simultaneously by the child – the family affluence scale and a subjective evaluation of family and neighbourhood affluence. For all CHQ-PF28 scores, multivariate linear regression models were estimated.

Results: The mean summary score of psychosocial health increased from 71.9 to 76.1 (p=0.029) when comparing children who lived in bad and good conditions during the first year of life. When comparing families which were able and unable to satisfy their material needs 13 years earlier, poorer HRQL results in adolescents were noted in the latter group both in relation to the summary scale of physical (81.1 vs 77.9; p=0.009) and psychosocial health (75.6 vs 71.0; p<0.001). In 5 out of 12 multivariate models, fulfilment of families’ material needs during the first year of children’s life proved to be a HRQL predictor independently of the current SES. However, those models were related only to psychosocial health indices.

Conclusions: Family material status during the first year of the child’s life has a strong impact on psychosocial health in adolescence. This impact remains, even if current social status was taken into account. The study has confirmed the need for implementing programmes for preventing social inequities in health aimed at families with small children or families expecting children.