English
conference proceeding
Koopman,
H.M., Kamphuis, R.P., Verrips, G.H., Vogels, A.G.C., Theunissen, N.C.M.,
Verloove-Vanhorick, S.P.& Wit, J.M. (1997). Health
related quality of life of children with juvenile chronic arthritis. 4th
Annual Conference of the International Society for Quality of Life
Research (ISOQOL), Vienna, Austria, 4-9 November, Quality of Life
Research, 6(7/8),
Abstract
The concept of health-related quality
of life (QoL) is defined as childrens' affective evaluation of different
aspects of their daily functioning. Few attempts have been made to develop
reliable health-related QoL assessment instruments for children with a
chronic disease. In order to meet this need, the DUCATQOL, a generic 32-item
self-report questionnaire, was constructed. The items cover four domains:
physical, emotional, social and school functioning. Data were collected
from different groups of children with a chronic disease. In this study
50 children with juvenile chronic arthritis (JCA) (mean age 10.5 years,
SD 4.5 years, 68% pauciarticular) receiving clinical care in the Leiden
University Medical Centre completed the questionnaire. The DUCATQOL proved
to be understandable, internally consistent (a = 0.91) and reproducible
(r = 0.90). The four eightitem subscales showed homogeneity (a ranging
from 0.68 to 0.77). In comparison with the reference group of 1,092 healthy
peers, children with JCA reported significantly lower scores on the physical
(F = 13.19 and p < 0.001) and emotional scale (F = 5.62 and p = 0.02).
Girls evaluated their physical condition lower than boys (F = 5.79 and
p = 0.01). Early onset of JCA (before age 5 years) resulted in a lower
score on the social scale (F = 5.78 and p = 0.02). Disease type (pauciarticular
or polyarticular) did not influence the subjective evaluation of health-related
QoL. It can be stated that children with JCA reported a lower health-related
QoL on different domains of their daily functioning.
Keywords
Arthritis, Assessment, Child Health, Children,
Chronic Disease, Evaluation, Health, Instrument, Juvenile Chronic Arthritis,
Health Related Quality of Life