The Turkish version of the Childhood Health Assessment Questionnaire (CHAQ) and the Child Health Questionnaire (CHQ)

Abstract

We report herein the results of the cross-cultural adaptation and validation into the Turkish language of the parent's version of two health related quality of life instruments. The Childhood Health Assessment Questionnaire (CHAQ) is a disease specific health instrument that measures functional ability in daily living activities in children with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA). The Child Health Questionnaire (CHQ) is (I generic health instrument designed to capture the physical and psychosocial well-being of children independently from the underlying disease. The Turkish CHAQ CHQ were fully validated with 3 forward and 3 backward translations. A total of 145 subjects were enrolled: 85 patients with JIA (35% systemic onset, 41% polyarticular onset, and 24% persistent oligoarticular subtype) and 60 healthy children. The CHAQ clinically discriminated between healthy subjects and JIA patients, with the systemic, and polyarticular subtypes having a higher degree of disability, pain, and a lower overall well-being when compared to their healthy peers. Also the CHQ clinically discriminated between healthy subjects and JIA patients, with the systemic onset, and polyarticular onset having a lower physical and psychosocial well-being when compared to their healthy peers.