title: The German version of the Childhood Health Assessment Questionnaire (CHAQ) and the Child Health Questionnaire (CHQ).
abstract: We report the results of the cross-cultural adaptation and validation into the German 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 German CHAQ was fully validated with 3 forward and 3 backward translations, while the CHQ has already been published and therefore it was revalidated. A total of 197 subjects were enrolled: 142 patients with JIA (5% systemic onset, 13% polyarticular onset, 8% extended oligoarticular subtype, and 74% persistent oligoarticular subtype) and 55 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 German versions of the CHAQ-CHQ are reliable, and valid tools for the functional, physical and psychosocial assessment of children with JIA.
authors.affiliation: Kinderrheumatologie, Hamburg, Germany.
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Foeldvari
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Ruperto
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Dressler
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Häfner
authors.forename: R M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Küster
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Michels
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Minden
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Schauer-Petrowskaja
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bullinger
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Landgraf
authors.forename: H I
authors.initials: HI
authors.lastname: Huppertz
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001171:Arthritis, Juvenile / Q000175:diagnosis*; D002648:Child; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D003466:Cultural Characteristics; D004185:Disability Evaluation; D005260:Female; D005858:Germany; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D008297:Male; D011594:Psychometrics; D011788:Quality of Life; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires