The Dutch translation of the revised Childhood Health Assessment Questionnaire: a preliminary study of score distribution.
BACKGROUND
The Childhood Health Assessment Questionnaire (CHAQ30) is the most commonly used physical functioning questionnaire for children with Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (JIA). By revising the CHAQ30 Lam et al. succeeded in decreasing the ceiling effect of this questionnaire in a North American population of children with diverse musculoskeletal diseases.


OBJECTIVE
To examine the score distribution of the revised CHAQ in a population of children with JIA.


METHODS
In this Dutch multicentre study 72 children with JIA participated (55 girls), with a mean age of 11.0 (+/- 3.1) and a mean disease duration of 4.6 year (+/- 3.7). The score distribution of the original CHAQ30 and four versions of the revised CHAQ was analysed with the median, range and interquartile range (IQR) and visualised with box-and-whisker plots. The normality of the score distribution was tested by the Kolmogorov-Smirnov one-sample test of normality.


RESULTS
Although the addition of 8 more challenging items improved the spread of the scores of the revised CHAQ versions, the original CHAQ30 showed a better distribution of the scores.


CONCLUSIONS
The revised CHAQ38 with the distribution characteristics, found in this study, might be especially relevant in interventions for patients with JIA at the mild end of the disability spectrum.
Van Dijk
M
M
Department of Physiotherapy Science, School for Health Sciences, University of Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Groen
W
W
Moors
S
S
Bekkering
P
P
Hegeman
A
A
Janssen
A
A
Takken
T
T
van der Net
J
J
Helders
P J M
PJ
D000293:Adolescent; D001171:Arthritis, Juvenile / Q000503:physiopathology*; D002648:Child; D004185:Disability Evaluation; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D008297:Male; D009426:Netherlands; D010865:Pilot Projects; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires / Q000592:standards*