The Youth Health Care measure-satisfaction, utilization, and needs (YHC-SUN)-development of a self-report version of the Child Health Care (CHC-SUN) proxy-measure

Silke Schmidt,Ute Thyen,Holger Muehlan,Franziska Bomba,Carsten Herrmann-Garitz

doi:10.1186/s12913-016-1419-1

Silke Schmidt, Ute Thyen + Show 3 more

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https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-016-1419-1

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Abstract

BackgroundThe transition of health care of youth (age 15–25) with chronic conditions requires the assessment of adolescents’ access, use and needs as well as satisfaction with the health services they use. The aim of this study was to test the adolescent adaptation of the parent version “Child Health Care Questionnaire - Satisfaction, Utilization and Needs” (CHC-SUN) concerning its psychometric performance and appropriateness for adolescents and young adults.MethodsThe Youth Health Care Measure (YHC-SUN) was designed to allow self-report of youth and it was pilot-tested in a small sample using cognitive debriefing. A cross-sectional survey in a sample of youth with chronic conditions in the transition period was carried out.ResultsOne hundred eighty-two ambulatory care patients with three conditions participated in the survey. The subscales of the section on satisfaction with care showed excellent internal consistencies, uni-dimensionality and fit to the model of the parent version. There was no impact of gender and education on satisfaction with care. Associations with age, diagnosis, experiences with care and health literacy affecting the satisfaction with care indicate discriminatory and content validity.ConclusionsPotential applications of the new instrument are evaluations of health care services for adolescents and young adults using self-reports and evaluations of transition programs and interventions such as patient education.

Highlights

The transition of health care of youth with chronic conditions requires the assessment of adolescents’ access, use and needs as well as satisfaction with the health services they use
The instrument ‘Child Health Care - Satisfaction, Utilization and Needs’ (CHC-SUN) has been developed cross-culturally to evaluate pediatric health care services for children and adolescents with special health care needs from the proxy perspective of parents [11, 12]
The subsample responding via paperpencil questionnaires in comparison to the one filling in online questionnaires did not differ with respect to gender, education and the main conditions, slightly in relation to age, with young adults being overrepresented in the online sample compared to more adolescents in the paper-pencil version (p=.05)

Summary

Introduction

The transition of health care of youth (age 15–25) with chronic conditions requires the assessment of adolescents’ access, use and needs as well as satisfaction with the health services they use. The aim of this study was to test the adolescent adaptation of the parent version “Child Health Care Questionnaire - Satisfaction, Utilization and Needs” (CHC-SUN) concerning its psychometric performance and appropriateness for adolescents and young adults. Chronic conditions impact in various ways on the lives of young people, in transition periods in particular when leaving home and engaging in partnerships. With a growing number of youth engaging in patient education programs which support the transition process we saw a need for a corresponding self-report version assessing health care satisfaction, utilization and needs from the perspective of adolescents and young adults [12,13,14]. In particular we assumed that access to a fairly standardized evidence based treatment and a predictable course of the condition (i.e., in type 1 diabetes) vs. treatment with large variation due to lack of evidence and predominance of individual factors (i.e. multiple sclerosis, inflammatory bowel disease) would have an impact on satisfaction with services

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