title: Development of a Spanish (Castillian) version of the Childhood Health Assessment Questionnaire. Measurement of health status in children with juvenile chronic arthritis.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To demonstrate that the Spanish (Castillian) version of the Childhood Health Assessment Questionnaire (cHAQ-S) is a valid and reliable instrument for measuring the health status of children with juvenile chronic (or rheumatoid) arthritis (JCA) and is sensitive to change.
  
  
  METHODS
  A conceptual translation of the original questionnaire into Spanish and two back-translations were performed. The cHAQ-S was completed by the parents of young children (aged 1 to 19 years) affected by JCA, and additionally by those children aged over 9. A second cHAQ-S was administered at least 15 months after the first one.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The cHAQ-S was administered to 79 patients of patients affected by JCA. The test-retest reliability was evaluated among 16 patients, and no significant differences between the first and second administration were found (0.88 versus 0.84; p > 0.6; intraclass correlation coefficient R = 0.94). The Cronbach's alpha coefficient was 0.948, indicating an excellent internal reliability with a mean correlation between the different components of the questionnaire varying from 0.3557 to 0.7831. For the between-observer reliability, an intraclass correlation coefficient of 0.96 was obtained. Correlations between DI (Disability Index) and several measures of disease activity were all statistically significant (Spearman's R ranged from 0.42 to 0.87; p < 0.005). Patients who improved showed similar improvement in the DI (p = 0.015), while patients who worsened showed a worsening of the DI (p = 0.1) and patients whose condition was stable showed no change in DI (p = 0.6).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The cHAQ-S is a feasible, reliable and valid instrument for the determination of the health status of Spanish children suffering from JCA. It is also sensitive to changes in the child's health status.
authors.affiliation: Paediatric Department, Unitat Integrada Hospital Sant Joan de Déu-Clínic, Institut d'Investigacions Biomèdiques August Pi i Sunyer, University of Barcelona, Spain. juanjo@hsjdbcn.org
authors.forename: J J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: García-García
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: González-Pascual
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Pou-Fernández
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Singh
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Jiménez
mesh_terms: D001171:Arthritis, Juvenile / Q000503:physiopathology*; D002648:Child; D002669:Child Welfare; D004185:Disability Evaluation; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D015588:Observer Variation; D012044:Regression Analysis; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013030:Spain; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires / Q000592:standards