PedsQL 3.0 Diabetes Module can be used as a valuable tool for measuring diabetes-specific HRQOL in child populations, both in research and in clinical practice.

The overall aim was to assess the reliability and accomplish a limited validation of the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory 3.0 Cardiac Module Scales (PedsQL 3.0), Swedish version, in a sample of Swedish children diagnosed with congenital heart defects (CHD). A secondary aim was to assess whether the children's health-related quality of life (HRQOL) was affected by gender, age, severity of the CHD, surgical intervention and whether the child self-report and parent proxy-report were consistent. A total of 126 families at The Queen Silvia Children's Hospital, Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Gothenburg, participated in the study. The PedsQL Inventory 4.0 Generic Core Scales (PedsQL 4.0) and the PedsQL 3.0 were administered to 94 children (aged 5-18 years) with CHD and 126 parents (of children with CHD aged 2-18 years). The results showed that the internal consistency of the PedsQL 3.0 reached or exceeded Cronbach's alpha values of 0.70 for both child self-report and parent proxy-report. The PedsQL 4.0 and PedsQL 3.0 were highly correlated (r ¼ 0.78 for parents and r ¼ 0.79 for children), indicating convergent validity. Age group 5-7 years had the lowest estimated HRQOL in comparison with the age group 8-12 years and 13-18 years. The group of children with severe cardiac disease generally reported significantly lower HRQOL as compared with the mild and moderate groups ( p , 0.05). Children who had undergone cardiac surgery reported lower cardiac-specific HRQOL than children who were not surgically treated ( p , 0.05). In conclusion, the PedsQL 3.0, Cardiac Module, reached acceptable a-values and can be a useful tool in clinical practice and in research.

Background: Long-term neuropsychological and cognitive outcomes in patients with nonsyndromic craniosynostosis have proven difficult to evaluate objectively because of methodologic problems with published studies based on their small and biased samples of patients, wide age ranges, and testing with unacceptable psychometric properties. This study evaluated the Full-Scale Intelligence Quotient and its subscales in a cohort with a small selection bias. Methods: Patients aged 7 to 16 years, born with nonsyndromic craniosynostosis and surgically treated, were tested using the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, Fourth Edition. Ninety-one patients were invited, and 73 patients were tested. Results: There was no difference in Full-Scale Intelligence Quotient score between patients who had undergone operations for sagittal synostosis or metopic synostosis and norms provided by the test. Patients operated on for sagittal synostosis showed a significantly higher perceptual reasoning intelligence quotient, but also significantly lower working-memory intelligence quotient and processing-speed intelligence quotient compared with the norms. Patients operated on for metopic synostosis showed no differences in any intelligence quotient index compared with the norm. In addition, attrition analysis showed no differences in background factors between responders and nonresponders. Conclusions: These results derived from a group of patients with uniform age range, and tested using an established tool, revealed that nonsyndromic children having undergone surgery for craniosynostosis exhibited average intellectual ability. However, the analysis indicated possible issues with working memory and processing speed in patients operated on for sagittal synostosis, highlighting impairments potentially associated with neuropsychological problems and that might contribute to learning disabilities.