title: The Bulgarian version of the Childhood Health Assessment Questionnaire (CHAQ) and the Child Health Questionnaire (CHQ).
abstract: We report herein the results of the cross-cultural adaptation and validation into the Bulgarian language of the parent's version of two health related quality of life instruments. The Childhood Health Assessment Questionnaire (CHAQ) is a disease specific health instrument that measures functional ability in daily living activities in children with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA). The Child Health Questionnaire (CHQ) is a generic health instrument designed to capture the physical and psychosocial well-being of children independently from the underlying disease. The Bulgarian CHAQ CHQ were fully validated with 1 forward and 1 backward translations. 137 subjects were enrolled: 77 patients with JIA (36% systemic onset, 30% polyarticular onset, 4% extended oligoarticular subtype, and 30% persistent oligoarticular subtype) and 60 healthy children. The CHAQ clinically discriminated between healthy subjects and JIA patients, with the polyarticular and extended oligoarticular subtypes having a higher degree of disability, pain, and a lower overall well-being when compared to their healthy peers. Also the CHQ clinically discriminated between healthy subjects and JIA patients, with the polyarticular onset and extended oligoarticular subtypes having a lower physical and psychosocial well-being when compared to their healthy peers. In conclusion the Bulgarian version of the CHAQ-CHQ is a reliable, and valid tool for the functional, physical and psychosocial assessment of children with JIA.
authors.affiliation: University Children's Hospital, Clinic of Rheumatology, 11 Dimiter Nestorov Str., 1606 Sofia, Bulgaria. drdmm@hotmail.com
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Mihaylova
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Ruperto
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Kibarova
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Teltcharova-Mihaylovska
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Kalaikov
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Stefanov
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Lisichki
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bojidarova
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001171:Arthritis, Juvenile / Q000175:diagnosis*; D002031:Bulgaria; D002648:Child; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D003466:Cultural Characteristics; D004185:Disability Evaluation; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D008297:Male; D011594:Psychometrics; D011788:Quality of Life; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires