A study of concordance between adolescent self-report and parent-proxy report of health-related quality of life in school-going adolescents.
OBJECTIVE
The purpose of the study was to determine the degree of concordance between the self-report and the parent's proxy report of health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in school-going adolescents using the World Health Organization Quality of Life (WHOQOL)-BREF instrument in India.


METHODS
Twenty schools were purposively selected out of the 1900 schools in Lucknow, India. About 5% adolescents (between 10-19 years) per school were randomly selected by lottery system. Subjects, whose parents consented for child's participation, completed the WHOQOL-BREF self-report and their parents filled the WHOQOL-BREF proxy-report for adolescent's HRQoL. Degree of concordance and association were assessed using Cohen's κ and Spearman's correlation, respectively.


RESULTS
Five hundred fifteen adolescents (mean age=14 years with a standard deviation of ± 2 years; 48.2% females) were included. κ Statistic values ranged from fair to moderate for all facets and dimensions of HRQoL between adolescent and parent report (κ=0.31-0.58, P<.01). There were moderate to very strong correlations between adolescent self and parent proxy report (r=0.62-0.81, P<.01) which declined with age of adolescent. The mother's scores correlated best in psychological dimension (r=0.81-0.88, P<.01) while that of father correlated best in environment dimension (r=0.81-0.79, P<.01), irrespective of child's gender.


CONCLUSIONS
Our study illustrated that fair to moderate agreement existed between parent proxy and subject's self-report for adolescent's HRQoL. That may be an indicator for suitability of parent's proxy report in certain dimensions, if a child is unavailable or unable to respond. However, further research may provide new insights into the determinants of concordance between subject self and parent proxy report of adolescent HRQoL.
Department of Pediatrics, Chattrapati Shahuji Maharaj Medical University, Lucknow, India.
Kasturi
K
Agnihotri
Shally
S
Awasthi
Uttam
U
Singh
Hem
H
Chandra
Savitri
S
Thakur
D000293:Adolescent; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D007194:India; D008297:Male; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D010290:Parents; D011594:Psychometrics; D011788:Quality of Life; D057566:Self Report; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires