Establishment And Evaluation Of Quality Of Life Scale On Deaf Children

Objective: To develop a more suitable quality of life scale for deaf children in China which canbe used to evaluate the health status and rehabilitation effect, and to offer a better measurementtools to improve the quality of life of deaf children and their social participation ability.Methods:（1）Through literature method, focus group discussions（FGD）, the domain andaspects of the quality of life scale for deaf children was constituted, which included coremodules and specific module, then the clauses pool was formed（.2）Through expert consultation,the initial adjustment and modifications opinion of the expert on questionnaire structure andlanguage was collected, and built the database. Then the improved Delphi method was appliedto select and amend entries, and the authority of coherence, return rates of the consultation andthe harmonious coefficients was evaluated. The final QOL scale for the deaf children was formed.（3）Through on-site questionnaire investigation, the data of deaf children was built. Thesplit-half reliability, Cronbach α coefficient, test-retest reliability and confirmatory factoranalysis and item analysis and item response theory（IRT）and other statistical methods wereused to evaluate the reliability, validity, discrimination of the scale.Results:1.To design and form a more perfec“tquality of life scale for deaf children.”Dependingon the level of children of different ages and cognitive ability to understand, on the basis of nosignificant differences in the structure of the entries, the scale included three editions (aged5-7years and aged8-16years old). Taking into account the comprehensive of the deaf children aged5-7was worse than the normal children at the same age, parent questionnaire was supplemented.Among them, each by a single scale physiological functions（PHF）, emotional function（EMF）,social function（SOF）, role function（ROF）, children with disabilities general modul（eDIS-GM）and hearing-impaired children-specific module（DIS-SML）and other six areas of38entries wasconstituted.2.The return rates of the two consultations were100%and96.15%, respectively. The meanvalues of authorities were0.7163and0.7577, respectively. The harmonious coefficients were0.0482和0.0184.3.The results of230cases showed: the split-half reliability was0.665, Cronbach coefficientwas0.843, Cronbach coefficient of all domains was between0.570-0.773. As to the correlationdimension, the correlation (r)of the physiological function(PHF）was0.5above, and which of theemotional function field（EMF）, social domain（SOF）, role of functional areas（ROF）,common module （DIS-GM）were0.63above;,0.50,0.62,0.59,0.75above,respectively. The constructvalidity, the overall model fit well. Each entry ICC curve distribution was more ideal, and entrycontains a large amount of information, the error was smaller. Survey completion time undercontrol in about15minutes, a high feasibility.Conclusion: The reliability, validity, discrimination and feasibility of the quality of life scale fordeaf children were good, and the scale can be used as the measure tools to evaluate the healthstatus and rehabilitation of children with hearing impairment.