title: Psychometric properties of the Autoquestionnaire Qualité de Vie Enfant Imagé (AUQEI) applied to children with cerebral palsy.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Quality of life (QL) assessments of children with incapacitating diseases, such as cerebral palsy (CP), have often been conducted with the help of the representatives of a child, making QL assessment more subjective. The Autoquestionnaire Qualité de Vie Enfant Imagé (AUQEI) is a QL assessment designed for children to self-report-it uses images to facilitate the reporting process.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  evaluate the psychometric properties of AUQEI when responses are given by children with CP.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Children aged 4 to 12 years (45 with CP and 45 healthy children) gave responses to the questionnaire. The data quality, reliability and validity were assessed. The data loss rate ranged from 8.8% to 46.7%, and was highest for the "autonomy" factor. No floor or ceiling effect was detected. The success rate for reliability of the internal consistency of the items was less than 80% for the "autonomy" factor. Cronbach's alpha coefficient was 0.71 for the instrument and less than 0.5 for the factors. All the factors had a success rate of greater than 80% for the discriminating validity of the items. The factors did not have correlations between each other, thus indicating adequate discriminating validity. Convergent validity was tested and a significant correlation was demonstrated only between the AUQEI "functioning" factor and the Child Health Questionnaire--50-Item (CHQ-PF50) physical summary score (r = 0.31, p = 0.042). The AUQEI scores did not have correlations with the gross motor function scores (p>0.05) as expected for divergent validity. Regarding construct validity, the total AUQEI score obtained by the CP group was lower (median: 47.3) than that of the healthy group (median: 51.0) (p<0.01).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The AUQEI was shown to be a reliable and valid instrument for assessing children with CP when the total score was used. Convergent validity should continue to be tested in future studies.
authors: Graduate Program in Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Federal University of Uberlândia, Uberlândia, Minas Gerais, Brazil.
authors: Wener
authors: W
authors: Barbosa-Resende
authors: Faculty of Medicine, Federal University of Uberlândia, Uberlândia, Minas Gerais, Brazil.
authors: Viviane de Oliveira
authors: Vde O
authors: Rangel
authors: Physical Therapy and Specialty Center Unimed, Uberlândia, Minas Gerais, Brazil.
authors: Ana Claudia
authors: AC
authors: Frontarolli
authors: Association for Assistance to Disabled Children,Uberlândia, Minas Gerais, Brazil.
authors: Renata R Hoffman
authors: RR
authors: Araújo
authors: Department of Pediatrics, Graduate Program in Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Federal University of Uberlândia, Uberlândia, Minas Gerais, Brazil.
authors: Carlos Henrique Martins
authors: CH
authors: da Silva
authors: Graduate Program in Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Federal University of Uberlândia, Uberlândia, Minas Gerais, Brazil; Center of Exact Sciences and Technology, Faculty of Mathematics, Uberlândia, Minas Gerais, Brazil.
authors: Rogério de Melo Costa
authors: Rde M
authors: Pinto
authors: Department of Pediatrics, Graduate Program in Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Federal University of Uberlândia, Uberlândia, Minas Gerais, Brazil.
authors: Nívea de Macedo Oliveira
authors: Nde M
authors: Morales
mesh_terms: D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002547:Cerebral Palsy / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011594:Psychometrics; D011788:Quality of Life; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires