English publication

Verrips, G.H., Vogels, A.G.C., Koopman, H.M., Theunissen, N.C.M., Kamphuis, R.P., Wit, J.M., & Verloove-Vanhorick, S.P. (1999).  Measuring health-related quality of life in a child population.  European Journal of Public Health,  9(3), 188-193.

Abstract

The 56-item TNO-AZL-Child-Quality-Of-Life (TACQOL) questionnaire was developed to meet the need for a reliable and valid instrument for measuring Health Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) in children. HRQoL was defined as health status in seven domains plus emotional responses to problems in health status. The TACQOL explicitly offers respondents the possibility of differentiating between their functioning and the way they feel about it. The aims of the study were threefold: to evaluate psychometric performance of the TACQOL in the general population, to evaluate the relationship between Parent Forms and Child Forms and to obtain additional information about validity. A random sample of 1789 parents of 6-11 year olds completed the TACQOL (response rate 71%), as well as 1159 8-11 year olds themselves (response rate 69%). Multiple correspondence analyses showed that item response categories were ordinal and that the TACQOL scales may be regarded as metric. Cronbach's alpha ranged from .65 to .84. Only 57% of reported health status problems were associated with negative emotions. Intraclass correlation coefficients between Parent Forms and Child Forms ranged from .44 to .61. Pearson’s correlation coefficients between TACQOL and KINDL ranged from .24 to .59. Univariate analyses of variance showed that children with chronic diseases and children receiving medical treatment had lower TACQOL scores than healthy children. The study showed that with the TACQOL children's HRQoL can be measured in a reliable and valid way.

Keywords

children; health status; measurement; quality of life;

picture of N.C.M. Theunissen

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Last updated on 12 February, 2015.