Development and validation of a tool to measure the impact of childhood disabilities on the lives of children and their families.
OBJECTIVE
Information on registers of children with special needs will be more meaningful if a validated measure of the severity of impact of a child's disability on life and family is included.


METHODS
We describe the development and initial validation of a parent-completed questionnaire (Generic Lifestyle Assessment Questionnaire LAQ-G) aimed at measuring such impact.


RESULTS
Data were collected on 95 case children, representing various disabilities, and 65 control children without disability, and analysed for case-control, test-re-test and inter-reporter reliability. Multidimensional scaling techniques were then used to derive six domains, representing impact of disability in a structure analogous to the participation domains of the revised International Classification ICF (WHO 2001).


CONCLUSIONS
Initial results suggest that the LAQ-G is a reliable measure of the impact of disability for children with a range of common disabling conditions.
Jessen
E C
EC
Northumberland Care Trust, Child Health Office, The Bondgate Surgery, Alnwick, Northumberland, UK. e.c.jessen@ncl.ac.uk
Colver
A F
AF
Mackie
P C
PC
Jarvis
S N
SN
D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000293:Adolescent; D001294:Attitude to Health; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D019988:Children with Disabilities; D005192:Family Health; D005195:Family Relations; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008019:Life Style; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires / Q000592:standards*