Abstract
Objective: To determine the feasibility, reliability and validity of the pediatric quality of life inventory (PedsQL™) in children with heart disease. Participants and setting: The study sample was comprised of parents of children with heart disease between the ages of 2 and 18 years including 250 child-respondents 5–18 years of age followed at a large, hospital-based pediatric cardiology clinic. Procedure/design: Parents and children completed the PedsQL™ 4.0 Generic Core Scales and the newly developed PedsQL™ 3.0 Cardiac Module during a pediatric cardiology outpatient visit. Child and parent scores on the PedsQL™ Generic Core Scales were compared to known healthy children/parents. Measurement properties were computed for the PedsQL™ Cardiac Module Scales. Cross-informant variance between children and parents was assessed. Results: The percentage of missing item responses was less than 2% for both parent and child-respondents, supporting the feasibility of PedsQL™ administration in the outpatient setting. Comparisons between all PedsQL™ Generic Core Scales for healthy children and children with heart disease revealed a significant difference ( P<0.001) between the groups, except on the child self-report physical functioning subscale ( P=0.114). There was a significant difference in self-reported physical functioning between children with complex heart disease and the healthy sample ( P<0.05). All internal consistency reliability coefficients for PedsQL™ cardiac module scales exceeded the minimum reliability standard for group comparisons, ranging from 0.72 to 0.96, except in the young child 5- to 7-year-old age group. Hypothesized correlations between cardiac module and core scales were statistically significant, ranging from 0.36 to 0.78. Conclusions: Results support the feasibility, reliability and validity of the PedsQL™ Generic Core Scales and Cardiac Module to assess health-related quality of life in children with heart disease.
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