Abstract
BackgroundThe Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory™ Generic Core Scales (PedsQL™) 4.0 is a generalized assessment of health-related quality of life (HRQoL) based on adolescent self-report and parent proxy-report. This study aims to determine the construct validity and reliability of PedsQL™ 4.0 among a sample of Malaysian adolescents and parents.MethodsA cross-sectional study was carried out at three selected public schools in the state of Selangor. A total of 379 Malaysian adolescents completed the PedsQL™ 4.0 adolescent self-report and 218 (55.9%) parents completed the PedsQL™ 4.0 parent proxy-report. Weight and height of adolescents were measured and BMI-for-age by sex was used to determine their body weight status.ResultsThere were 50.8% male and 49.2% female adolescents who participated in this study (14.25 ± 1.23 years). The prevalence of overweight and obesity (25.8%) was four times higher than the prevalence of severe thinness and thinness (6.1%). Construct validity was analyzed using Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA). Based on CFA, adolescent self-report and parent proxy-report met the criteria of convergent validity (factor loading > 0.5, Average Variance Extracted (AVE) > 0.5, Construct Reliability > 0.7) and showed good fit to the data. The adolescent self-report and parent proxy-report exhibited discriminant validity as the AVE values were larger than the R2 values. Cronbach’s alpha coefficients of the adolescent self-report (α = 0.862) and parent proxy-report (α = 0.922) showed these instruments are reliable. Parents perceived the HRQoL of adolescents was poorer compared to the perception of the adolescent themselves (t = 5.92, p < 0.01). There was no significant difference in total HRQoL score between male and female adolescents (t = 0.858, p > 0.05). Parent proxy-report was negatively associated with the adolescents’ BMI-for-age (r = -0.152, p < 0.05) whereas no significant association was found between adolescent self-report and BMI-for-age (r = 0.001, p > 0.05).ConclusionAdolescent self-report and parent proxy-report of the PedsQL™ 4.0 are valid and reliable to assess HRQoL of Malaysian adolescents. Future studies are recommended to use both adolescent self-report and parent-proxy report of HRQoL as adolescents and parents can provide different perspectives on HRQoL of adolescents.
Highlights
The Pediatric Quality of Life InventoryTM Generic Core Scales (PedsQLTM) 4.0 is a generalized assessment of health-related quality of life (HRQoL) based on adolescent self-report and parent proxy-report
Validity Construct validity which comprises convergent and discriminant validity was determined through Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA)
Convergent validity was tested by examining the factor
Summary
The Pediatric Quality of Life InventoryTM Generic Core Scales (PedsQLTM) 4.0 is a generalized assessment of health-related quality of life (HRQoL) based on adolescent self-report and parent proxy-report. HRQoL is a broad range of concepts that explains how quality of life affects an individual’s physical health, psychological state, independence, social relationships and his perception towards environmental influences [1,2]. Evaluation of HRQoL is mainly based on the subjective perception of the physical, emotional, social functioning as well as the overall wellbeing of an individual [3]. As delineated by the WHO [4,5], a HRQoL instrument must be multidimensional, comprising at least a minimum of three dimensions, namely physical, psychological (emotional and cognitive) and social health dimensions.
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