29swedish

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

B. Andersson Gäre¹, N. Ruperto², S. Berg³, S. Hagelberg⁴, N.O. Jonsson¹, B. Magnusson⁴, J. Martinell³, A. Erling³, J.M. Landgraf⁵, for the Paediatric Rheumatology International Trials Organisation (PRINTO)

¹Ryhov's County Hospital, Jönköping, Sweden; ²Laboratorio di Informatica Medica, IRCCS S. Matteo, Pavia, Italy; ³University of Göteborg, Department of Pediatrics, Göteborg; ⁴Astrid Lindgren Children's Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden; ⁵HealthAct, Boston, MA, USA.

ABSTRACT
We report herein the results of the cross-cultural adaptation and validation into the Swedish 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 Swedish CHAQ CHQ were already published and therefore were revalidated in this study. A total of 129 subjects were enrolled: 69 patients with JIA (13% systemic onset, 39% polyarticular onset, 25% extended oligoarticular subtype, and 23% persistent oligoarticular subtype) and 60 healthy children. The CHAQ clinically discriminated between healthy subjects and JIA patients, with the systemic, 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 systemic onset, polyarticular onset and extended oligoarticular subtypes having a lower physical and psychosocial well-being when compared to their healthy peers.
In conclusion the Swedish version of the CHAQ-CHQ are reliable, and valid tools for the functional, physical and psychosocial assessment of children with JIA.

Key words
Swedish Childhood Health Assessment Questionnaire (CHAQ), Swedish 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: Boel Andersson Gäre, MD, Ryhov's County Hospital, Department of Pediatrics, Ryhov's County Hospital, 551 85 Jönköping, Sweden.
E-mail: boel.andersson-gare@ryhov.ltjkpg.se
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/