Psychometric Properties of the Swedish Version of the Burn Outcomes Questionnaire for Children Aged 5 to 18 Years

Abstract

Although pediatric burn injuries are common, there is a lack of burn-specific health outcome measurements for children. The American Burn Association and the Shriners Hospitals for Children have developed the Burn Outcomes Questionnaire (BOQ), which is a parent-report questionnaire measuring the functional outcome after burn in children aged 5 to 18 years. The aim of this study was to examine the psychometric properties of the Swedish version of the BOQ, assessing feasibility, reliability, and validity aspects. Participants were parents (n = 70) of children aged 5 to 18 years who were treated at the Uppsala or Linköping burn center between January 2000 and December 2008. For most subscales, feasibility was adequate and the internal consistency was good: Cronbach's α values were above 0.76 in all but 1 subscale, and mean interitem correlations ranged from 0.34 to 0.90. The test-retest reliability was significant in the majority of subscales. Evidence of validity was shown by associations among the BOQ subscales and between BOQ subscales and measures of burn severity, heat sensitivity, fear-avoidance beliefs, and parent reports of the child's psychological problems. In conclusion, with the exception of a few subscales, this study supports the continued evaluation of the Swedish version of BOQ as a tool to measure outcome after burn in children aged 5 to 18 years.