14german

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

I. Foeldvari¹, N. Ruperto², F. Dressler³, R. Häfner⁴, R.M. Küster⁵, H. Michels⁶, K. Minden⁷, C. Schauer-Petrowskaja⁷, M. Bullinger¹, J.M. Landgraf⁸, H.I. Huppertz⁹, for the Paediatric Rheumatology International Trials Organisation (PRINTO)

¹Kinderrheumatologie, Hamburg, Germany; ²Laboratorio di Informatica Medica, IRCCS S. Matteo, Pavia, Italy; ³Medizinische Hochschule Hannover, Hannover; ⁴Rummelsberger Anstalten der Inneren Mission E.V., Garmisch-Partenkirchen; ⁵Abtlg. PŠdiatrische Rheumatologie u. Osteologie, Bad Bramsted; ⁶Fachkrankenhaus Neckargemund gGmbH, Neckargemund; ⁷Klinikum Buch, Berlin, Germany; ⁸HealthAct, Boston, MA, USA; ⁹Zentralkrankenhaus, Bremen, Germany.

ABSTRACT
We report the results of the cross-cultural adaptation and validation into the German 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 German CHAQ was fully validated with 3 forward and 3 backward translations, while the CHQ has already been published and therefore it was revalidated. A total of 197 subjects were enrolled: 142 patients with JIA (5% systemic onset, 13% polyarticular onset, 8% extended oligoarticular subtype, and 74% persistent oligoarticular subtype) and 55 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 German versions of the CHAQ-CHQ are reliable, and valid tools for the functional, physical and psychosocial assessment of children with JIA.

Key words
German Childhood Health Assessment Questionnaire (CHAQ), German 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), by IRCCS Policlinico S. Matteo (Pavia, Italy) and by Telecom Italy.

Please address correspondence and requests for reprints to either: Hans-Iko Huppertz, MD, Zentralkrankenhaus, Sankt-JŸrgen Strasse, Prof.-Hess-Kinderklinik,
28205 Bremen, Germany.
E-mail: huppertz.bremen@t-online.de
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/