Measuring health-related quality of life in young children with physical illness: psychometric properties of the parent-reported KIDSCREEN-27

Abstract

Purpose This study examined whether the KIDSCREEN-27 was reliable and valid in young children 2-7 years with chronic physical illnesses which included estimating inter-domain correlations and internal consistency; measurement invariance testing; and, discriminant and convergent validity assessments. Methods Data come from the Multimorbidity in Children and Youth across the Life-course; a longitudinal study of individuals aged 2-16 years with physical illness. The parent-reported KIDSCREEN-27 was administered. Children (2-7 years; n = 106) were compared to adolescents (8-16 years; n = 157). Reliability was estimated using Cronbach α for internal consistency. Multiple group confirmatory factor analysis tested for measurement invariance. Cohen's d and Pearson coefficient were used to assess discriminant validity by sex and age. Convergent validity was tested using Pearson coefficients with the WHODAS 2.0 (child functioning/impairment). Multiple regression examined associations between multimorbidity (cooccurring physical and mental illness) and HRQL. Results Internal consistency reliabilities were α = 0.74-0.88 (children) and α = 0.77-0.88 (adolescents). Inter-domain correlations were relatively low (children: r = 0.18-0.59; adolescents: r = 0.30-0.62) indicating that each KIDSCREEN-27 domain was measuring a unique aspect of health-related quality of life. Measurement invariance was demonstrated (scalar level). Parameter estimates of the invariant models were similar for children and adolescents. Small, non-significant correlations were found for sex and age for children and adolescents. Medium, significant correlations were found for both groups between the KIDSCREEN-27 and WHODAS 2.0. Children and adolescents with multimorbidity had significantly lower physical well-being, psychological well-being, and school environment scores compare to those without multimorbidity. Regression coefficients were similar between groups. Conclusion Findings provide evidence of adequate psychometrics for the KIDSCREEN-27 in young children with chronic physical illness.

Gender variance and psychological well-being in Chinese community children.

“…Thus, we adopted the emotion (five items, e.g., “During the past week, my child had fun and laughed a lot”) and self-esteem (four items, e.g., “During the past week, my child was proud of him/herself”) subscales from two measures on children's quality of life and well-being, the KINDL and KIDSCREEN (Erhart et al, 2009; Ravens-Sieberer & Bullinger, 1998), to measure happiness. Both the KINDL and KIDSCREEN have been applied in children varying widely in age from preschool to adolescence (Erhart et al, 2009; Ferro et al, 2022; Ravens-Sieberer & Bullinger, 2000). Items were rated on a 5-point scale (“1 = Never ” to “5 = All the Time ”) and averaged.…”

Correlates of Moderate-to-Vigorous Physical Activity in Children With Physical Illness and Physical–Mental Multimorbidity

“…Raw scores were transformed into standard T -scores (mean of 50 and standard deviation of 10) for each subscale; higher scores indicate better health-related quality of life. It has robust evidence of reliability, validity, and sensitivity among children as young as 2 years of age with typical development and those with physical or mental illness in over 30 countries ( Ferro, Otto, & Ravens-Sieberer, 2021 ; Qadeer & Ferro, 2018 ; Ravens-Sieberer et al, 2014 ; Tompke & Ferro, 2019 ).…”

Discussion on the assessment of functioning in people under 18 years of age

“…The Quality of Life Research journal recently published an article about the assessment of the reliability and validity of the KIDSCREEN-27 in children aged 2 to 7 years [1]. I congratulate the authors for the initiative.…”