Preliminary evidence on the measurement properties of the Chinese version of the child health questionnaire, parent form (CHQ-PF50) and child form (CHQ-CF87)

Abstract

The objective of this study was to evaluate the reliability and construct validity of the Chinese parent form (PF50) and child form (CF87) of the Child Health Questionnaire (CHQ). To assess the construct validity and reliability of the Chinese versions, we invited 1099 parents of healthy children and 816 school children to complete the Chinese CHQ-PF50 and CHQ-CF87, respectively. Psychometric analysis on item convergent validity and discriminant validity showed > or = 99% rates of success for all 10 scales in the CF87 and > or = 94% for all but one scale in the PF50, the exception being general health scale (86%). We observed minimal floor effects for both questionnaires, but substantial ceiling effects for five scales in both the PF50 and CF87 (physical functioning, role-emotional/behavioral, role-physical, bodily pain and family activities). A substantially lower ceiling effect was observed for the physical scale and bodily pain in the CF87 (19% and 25%, respectively) relative to the PF50 (46% and 42%, respectively). The median alpha coefficient for CF87 and PF50 was 0.90 (range, 0.80-0.94) and 0.78 (range, 0.44-0.88), respectively. Our findings suggest that the Chinese CHQ-PF50 and CHQ-CF87 are robust and sufficiently reliable for group comparisons and perhaps also for use in other Chinese populations.