The reliability of the disabled children's quality-of-life questionnaire in Swedish children with diabetes.
OBJECTIVE
To determine the reliability of the disabled children's quality-of-life measure (DISABKIDS) chronic generic questionnaire and diabetes module in children. The questionnaire is being evaluated for repeated routine health-related quality-of-life (HrQoL) assessment and in association with the Swedish national paediatric diabetes registry (Swediabkids), which is a tool for regular clinical use.


METHODS
Children and parents completed the questionnaire during a routine visit to the diabetes clinic. In total, 120 families completed the test and retest. Split-half reliability correlation and intraclass correlation (ICC) coefficients were calculated. Bland & Altman plots were calculated on the generic HRQoL domain.


RESULTS
Both child and parent versions showed good internal consistency. Test-retest ICC coefficients for the generic HrQoL module were 0.913 for the children and 0.820 for the parent version. All generic domains independently showed good reliability. The diabetes module had a score of 0.855 for children and 0.823 for parents. Split-half correlation for generic and diabetes modules was 0.930 and 0.848 for children, 0.953 and 0.903 for parents. Bland and Altman plots showed substantial agreement between the two administrations for both children and parents.


CONCLUSIONS
The DISABKIDS questionnaire is a reliable instrument for the repeated measurements of HrQoL in children with diabetes.
Paediatric Growth Research Centre, Department of Paediatrics, Institute of Clinical Sciences, The Sahlgrenska Academy at University of Gothenburg, Göteborg, Sweden. john.chaplin@vgregion.se
J E
JE
Chaplin
M
M
Hallman
N O
NO
Nilsson
B
B
Lindblad
D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D003920:Diabetes Mellitus / Q000175:diagnosis; D019988:Children with Disabilities; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011788:Quality of Life; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013548:Sweden