The Study Of Application Of The Chinese Version Of The Pediatric Quality Of Life Inventory^TM(PedsQL^TM3.0)Rheumatology Module （Ages8-12） Among Chinese Children With Rheumatic Diseases

Background:The rheumatic disease is one of the common childhood diseases, which refers to the disorders of connective tissue, especially the joints and related structures, characterized by inflammation, degeneration, or metabolic derangement. Most of the rheumatic diseases with high morbidity and mortality influence the children’s health and quality of life seriously. So far, the PedsQLTM4.0Generic Core Scales and (or the disease-specific scale were used to measure the quality of life for children with rheumatic diseases in foreign countries. But no literature was retrieved in China. The lack of mature domestic assessment is one of the main reasons. Given the fact that the PedsQLTM3.0Rheumatology Module enjoyed the high validity and reliability in the previous researches, translating it into the Chinese version and performing the evaluation can provide an effective tool for the further study.Objective:1. To evaluate the reliability and validity of the Chinese Version of the Pediatric Quality of Life InventoryTM (PedsQLTM3.0) Rheumatology Module (ages8-12)2. To describe the quality of life in children with rheumatic diseases, and preliminarily discuss the applicability of this tool among children with rheumatic disease in China.Methods:The linguistic translation of the PedsQLTM3.0Rheumatology Module (ages8-12) was performed following the standard process of’Translation-Back translation-Cultural Adjustment’under the authorization the original author.108children with rheumatic diseases and their parents completed the PedsQLTM3.0Rheumatology Module (ages8-12). The Cronbach’s a internal consistency, test-retest reliability, face validity, content validity, construct validity, criterion-related validity were examined to evaluate the reliability and validity of the Chinese version of the PedsQL TM3.0Rheumatology Module (ages8-12).124children with rheumatic diseases and their parents were involved in the part of the description of the quality of life in children with rheumatic diseases preliminarily. SPSS13.0software was used for statistical analysis.Results:The reliability and validity of the Chinese Version of the Pediatric Quality of Life InventoryTM (PedsQLTM3.0) Rheumatology Module (ages8-12):(1) The internal consistency reliability alpha coefficients of the child self-report ranging from 0.76to0.92, and ranging from0.72to0.95of the parent proxy-report.(2)Test-retest reliability of the child self-report was0.96, and that of the parent proxy-report was0.98(P<0.01).(3)The content validity index of child self-report was0.94, and the parent proxy-report’s was0.95.(4) Exploratory factor analysis showed that in the child self-report,5common factors were extracted, the cumulative contribution rate was78.58%of the total variance. In the parent proxy-report, also5common factors were extracted; the cumulative contribution rate was80.41%of the total variance. It means the factor structure of the Chinese version was similar to the theoretical construct of the original instrument.(5)The score between the Chinese version of the PedsQLTM3.0Rheumatology Module (ages8-12) and the Chinese version of the PedsQLTM4.0Generic Core Scales (ages8-12) showed a significant correlation (r of the child self-report ranging from0.64to0.79and the parent proxy-report’s ranging from0.60to0.84, P<0.01).(6)There was a good concordance existed between the child self-report and the parent proxy-report (r ranging from0.60to0.84, P<0.01).The quality of life for children with rheumatic diseases:child self-report scored83.99TM12.68, and parent proxy-report scored80.69TM15.68. Children reported higher grand means of the PedsQLTM3.0Rheumatology Module (ages8-12) than did their parents, and except the’communication’domain, all domains had significant statistical difference(P<0.01). The quality of life for the children with rheumatic diseases was highly related to the gender, place of residence, school or not, disease onset age and the parent’s education level(P<0.05).Conclusions:The Chinese Version of the PedsQLTM3.0Rheumatology Module (ages8-12) retains good reliability and validity, and is qualified to assess the quality of life among Chinese children with rheumatic diseases. And the quality of life of subjects in this research seemed fine, but the scores of’worry’and’communication’domain were relatively low, which needs more attention.