title: The Finnish 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 Finnish 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 Finnish CHAQ-CHQ were validated with 3 forward and 1 backward translations. A total of 161 subjects were enrolled: 89 patients with JIA (9% systemic onset, 44% polyarticular onset, 26% extended oligoarticular subtype, and 21% persistent oligoarticular subtype) and 72 healthy children. The CHAQ clinically discriminated between healthy subjects and JIA patients, with the systemic, 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 systemic, polyarticular and extended oligoarticular subtypes having a lower physical and psychosocial well-being when compared to their healthy peers. In conclusion the Finnish version of the CHAQ-CHQ is a reliable and valid tool for the functional, physical and psychosocial assessment of children with JIA.
authors.affiliation: Hospital for Children and Adolescents, University of Helsinki, 00029 Helsinki, Finland.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Pelkonen
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Ruperto
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Honkanen
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hannula
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Savolainen
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Lahdenne
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001171:Arthritis, Juvenile / Q000175:diagnosis*; D002648:Child; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D003466:Cultural Characteristics; D004185:Disability Evaluation; D005260:Female; D005387:Finland; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D008297:Male; D011594:Psychometrics; D011788:Quality of Life; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires