6bulgaria

The Bulgarian version of the Childhood Health Assessment Questionnaire (CHAQ) and the Child Health Questionnaire (CHQ)

D. Mihaylova¹, N. Ruperto², V. Kibarova¹, A. Teltcharova-Mihaylovska¹, D. Kalaikov³, St. Stefanov¹, K. Lisichki¹, M. Bojidarova¹, for the Paediatric Rheumatology International Trials Organisation (PRINTO)

¹Clinic of Rheumatology, University Children's Hospital, Sofia, Bulgaria; ²Laboratorio di Informatica Medica, IRCCS S. Matteo, Pavia, Italy; ³Department of Social Pediatrics, University ChildrenÕs Hospital, Sofia, Bulgaria.

ABSTRACT
We report herein the results of the cross-cultural adaptation and validation into the Bulgarian language of the parent's version of two health related quality of life instruments. The Childhood Health Assessment Questionnaire (CHAQ) is a disease specific health instrument that measures functional ability in daily living activities in children with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA). The Child Health Questionnaire (CHQ) is a generic health instrument designed to capture the physical and psychosocial well-being of children independently from the underlying disease. The Bulgarian CHAQ CHQ were fully validated with 1 forward and 1 backward translations. 137 subjects were enrolled: 77 patients with JIA (36% systemic onset, 30% polyarticular onset, 4% extended oligoarticular subtype, and 30% persistent oligoarticular subtype) and 60 healthy children. The CHAQ clinically discriminated between healthy subjects and JIA patients, with the polyarticular and extended oligoarticular subtypes having a higher degree of disability, pain, and a lower overall well-being when compared to their healthy peers. Also the CHQ clinically discriminated between healthy subjects and JIA patients, with the polyarticular onset and extended oligoarticular subtypes having a lower physical and psychosocial well-being when compared to their healthy peers.
In conclusion the Bulgarian version of the CHAQ-CHQ is a reliable, and valid tool for the functional, physical and psychosocial assessment of children with JIA.

Key words
Bulgarian Childhood Health Assessment Questionnaire (CHAQ), Bulgarian Child Health Questionnaire (CHQ), cross cultural adaptation and psychometric evaluation, health related quality of life, juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA), healthy children.

Supported by a grant from the European Union (BMH4-983531 CA), and by IRCCS Policlinico S. Matteo (Pavia, Italy).

Please address correspondence and requests for reprints to either: Dimitrina Mihaylova, MD, University Children's Hospital, Clinic of Rheumatology, 11 Dimiter Nestorov Str., 1606 Sofia, Bulgaria.
E-mail: drdmm@hotmail.com
or PRINTO, IRCCS Policlinico S. Matteo, Pediatria Generale e Reumatologia, Piazzale Golgi, 2, 27100 Pavia, Italy.
E-mail: nruperto@smatteo.pv.it
WWW: http://www.medit.it/printo