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. Pearsons 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;