title: Construct validity and impact of mode of administration of the PedsQL™ among a pediatric injury population.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The purpose of this study was to determine the construct validity of the PedsQL™ health related quality of life (HRQoL) instrument for use among injured children and to examine the impact of using different modes of administration, including paper and pencil, online and telephone.
  
  
  METHODS
  Two hundred thirty-three participants (aged 0 - 16) were recruited from hospital wards and the emergency department of a pediatric hospital in a large urban center in British Columbia, Canada. Data used to evaluate the construct validity of the PedsQL™ were collected from participants at the time of seeking injury treatment (baseline) to capture a retrospective measure of pre injury health, and one month post injury. Data used to compare different modes of administration (n = 44) were collected at baseline. To assess construct validity repeated measures analysis of variance (rANOVA) was used to determine whether the PedsQL™ tool was able to discriminate between patients pre and post injury while investigating possible interaction by category of length of stay in hospital. The impact of different modalities of administering the PedsQL™ on item responses was investigated using Bland-Altman plots.
  
  
  RESULTS
  rANOVA showed significant differences in PedsQL™ total score between baseline and one month post injury (p < .001), and differences in mean total score at one month post injury by category of injury severity (p < .001). There was also significant interaction by category of injury severity for the change in PedsQL™ total score from baseline to one month (p < .001). Pearson's correlations were highly significant across three modalities of survey administration: paper and pencil, computer and telephone administration (range: .92 to .97, p < .001). Bland-Altman plots showed strong consistency.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The PedsQL™ instrument is able to discriminate between pre and post injury HRQoL, as well as HRQoL post injury for injuries of varying severity. These findings are an indication that this instrument has good construct validity for the purpose of evaluating HRQoL of injured children. Data collected via paper-pencil, online and telephone administration were highly consistent. This is important as depending on the setting, clinical or research, different modalities of completing this instrument may be more appropriate.
authors.affiliation: British Columbia Injury Research & Prevention Unit, F508 - 4480 Oak Street, Vancouver, BC, V6H 3V4, Canada. skruse@cw.bc.ca.|Child & Family Research Institute, Vancouver, BC, Canada. skruse@cw.bc.ca.
authors.forename: Sami
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kruse
authors.affiliation: British Columbia Injury Research & Prevention Unit, F508 - 4480 Oak Street, Vancouver, BC, V6H 3V4, Canada. amyschneeberg@gmail.com.|School of Population & Public Health, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada. amyschneeberg@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Amy
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Schneeberg
authors.affiliation: British Columbia Injury Research & Prevention Unit, F508 - 4480 Oak Street, Vancouver, BC, V6H 3V4, Canada. mbrussoni@cw.bc.ca.|Child & Family Research Institute, Vancouver, BC, Canada. mbrussoni@cw.bc.ca.|Department of Pediatrics, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada. mbrussoni@cw.bc.ca.|School of Population & Public Health, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada. mbrussoni@cw.bc.ca.|British Columbia Children's Hospital, Vancouver, BC, Canada. mbrussoni@cw.bc.ca.
authors.forename: Mariana
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Brussoni
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000293:Adolescent; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001955:British Columbia; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D011594:Psychometrics; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires / Q000592:standards*; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000523:psychology*