Purpose To develop a practical, efficient, and valid pediatric global health measure that would be useful for clinical, quality improvement, and research applications. Methods Using the PROMIS mixed-methods approach for item bank development, we identified an item pool that was well understood by children as young as age 8 years, and tested its psychometric properties in an internet panel sample of 3,635 children 8–17 years-old and 1,807 parents of children 5–17 years-old. Results The final version of the pediatric global health measure included 7 items assessing general, physical, mental, and social health. Four of these items had the same wording as the PROMIS adult global health measure. Internal consistency was 0.88 for the child-report form and 0.84 for the parent form; both had excellent test-retest reliability. The measures showed factor invariance across age categories. There was no differential item functioning by age, gender, race, or ethnicity. Because the measure includes the general health rating question, it is possible to estimate the pediatric global health scale using this widely used single item. Conclusions The PROMIS Pediatric Global Health measure is a brief and reliable 7-item summary assessment of a child’s self-reported health. Future work will attempt to statistically link this pediatric form with the PROMIS adult global health measures to create a single global health metric that can be used across the life course.

BACKGROUND To enhance the impact of school nutrition programs on children’s health, more information is needed on the associations between healthy and unhealthy food offerings during school lunch periods and children’s eating behavior. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the contributions of food offerings and participation in school lunch programs on children’s overall (both in- and out-of-school) eating behavior. METHODS A cross-sectional observational study was conducted in which 2039 students in 12 elementary and 10 middle schools reported their eating behavior and the frequencies with which they purchased meals and à la carte items in the school cafeteria. Food service managers from each school provided information on the availability of foods and beverages during school lunch periods. Multilevel regression analyses were conducted to identify school- and student-level predictors of children’s eating behavior. RESULTS The availability of nutritious foods during school lunch periods was associated with healthier eating behavior among students. However, this effect was observed only among children who infrequently purchased à la carte food items, and not among those who were frequent purchasers. CONCLUSION Increased availability of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and low-fat dairy products as components of school meals may be an effective strategy to promote healthy eating behaviors among children. Improving the nutrition standards for foods offered in competition with federally reimbursable school meals may enhance the positive effects of school meal programs on student eating behavior.

Purpose To describe the development of pediatric family relationships measures, with versions for child self-report (8–17 years) and parent-report for children 5–17 years old. Measures were created for integration into the Patient Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System(PROMIS®). Methods Semi-structured interviews with 10 experts, 24 children, and 8 parents were conducted to elicit and clarify essential elements of family relationships. A systematic literature review was conducted to identify item concepts representative of each element. The concepts were transformed into items that were iteratively revised based on cognitive interviews (n = 43 children) and item translatability review. Psychometric studies involving 2846 children and 2262 parents were conducted to further refine and validate the instruments. Results Qualitative procedures supported the development of content valid Family Relationships item banks. Final child- and parent-report item banks each contain 47 items. Unidimensional item banks were calibrated using IRT-modeling to estimate item parameters representative of the US population and to enable computerized adaptive test administration. Four- and eight-item short forms were constructed for standard fixed format administration. All instruments have strong internal consistency, retest-reliability, and provide precise estimates of various levels of family relationship quality. Preliminary evidence of the instruments’ validity was provided by known-group comparisons and convergence with legacy measures. Conclusion The PROMIS pediatric Family Relationships measures can be applied in research focused on determinants, outcomes, and the protective effects of children’s subjective family relationship experiences.

Background Children's activity level is commonly assessed in clinical research, but rigorous assessment tools for children are scarce. Our objectives were to improve pediatric activity self-report measures using qualitative methods to develop item pools that measure these concepts. Methods Based on the items generated from our conceptual framework development, we applied cognitive interviews and comprehensibility reviews to ensure children readily understood the items. Results Our methods resulted in 129 unique items, physical activity (80 items), sedentary behaviors (23 items), and strengthening activities (26 items), that were comprehensible to children between the ages of 8 – 18 years. Comprehensibility review resulted in the deletion of 4 items. Conclusions The resultant item pools reflect children's experiences and understanding of the concepts of physical activity, sedentary behavior and strengthening activities. The item pools will undergo calibration using item response theory to support computer adaptive test administration of self and proxy reported outcomes.