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

M. Harjacek¹, N. Ruperto², J. Ostojic¹, L.T. Bukovac³, for the Paediatric Rheumatology International Trials Organisation (PRINTO)

¹Children's Hospital, Zagreb, Croatia, ²Laboratorio di Informatica Medica, IRCCS S. Matteo, Pavia, Italy, 3Pediatric Clinic Medical School, Zagreb, Croatia.

ABSTRACT
We report herein the results of the cross-cultural adaptation and validation into the Croatian 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 Croatian CHAQ-CHQ were fully validated with 3 forward and 3 backward translations. A total of 139 subjects were enrolled: 75 patients with JIA (19% systemic onset, 20% polyarticular onset, 17% extended oligoarticular subtype, and 44% persistent oligoarticular subtype) and 64 healthy children. 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 Croatian version of the CHAQ-CHQ is a reliable, and valid tool for the functional, physical and psychosocial assessment of children with JIA.

Key words
Croatian Childhood Health Assessment Questionnaire (CHAQ), Croatian 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: Miroslav Harjacek, MD, Children's Hospital Zagreb, Department of Pediatrics, Klaiceva 16, 10 000 Zagreb, Croatia.
E-mail: miroslav.harjacek@zg.tel.hr
or Paediatric Rheumatology International Trials Organisation (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/