A new measure of health-related quality of life for children: Preliminary findings

Preliminary findings arising from the development of a new instrument for the assessment of quality of life in nine to fifteen year old children are presented. The questionnaire can be completed in 10-15 minutes by children themselves and by parents. It covers the main 15 domains of children's lives, for each of which a rating of function, upset and satisfaction are obtained. Data are presented for three groups of children (normal comparison N = 25, psychiatric disorder N = 25, and chronic physical disorder N = 26), and for three groups of parents of children with psychiatric disorder (N = 25, chronic physical disorder N = 24, and mental retardation N = 26). Evidence is presented to demonstrate the instrument has reasonable reliability and validity, and discriminates between types of disorder and between disorder and normality.