19korean

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

S.C. Bae¹, N. Ruperto², J.H. Lee¹, W.S. Uhm¹, Y.W. Park¹, S.Y. Kim¹, for the Paediatric Rheumatology International Trials Organisation (PRINTO)

¹The Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases, Hanyang University Medical Center, Seoul, Korea; ²Laboratorio di Informatica Medica, IRCCS S. Matteo, Pavia, Italy.

ABSTRACT
We report herein the results of the cross-cultural adaptation and validation into the Korean 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. A total of 221 subjects were enrolled: 87 patients with JIA (18% systemic onset, 37% polyarticular onset, 12% extended oligoarticular subtype, and 33% persistent oligoarticular subtype) and 134 healthy children. The CHAQ clinically discriminated between healthy subjects and the four JIA subtypes of patients, with the JIA patients 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 JIA patients having a lower physical and psychosocial well-being when compared to their healthy peers.
In conclusion the Korean version of the CHAQ-CHQ is a reliable, and valid tool for the functional, physical and psychosocial assessment of children with JIA.

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

Supported in part by the research fund of Hanyang University (HY-2000), 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: Sang-Cheol Bae, MD, The Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases, Hanyang University Medical Center, Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Rheumatology, Seoul 133-792, Korea
E-mail: scbae@hanyang.ac.kr
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/