Abstract
Purpose :
The PedsQL 4.0 is a generic health related quality of life instrument that has been used to assess quality of life across many pediatric health conditions. Previously we conducted focus groups which showed that the PedsQL 4.0 covered most of the domains important to children with vision impairment (VI) and their parents. We hypothesized that this instrument could distinguish between children with VI and normally sighted children.
Methods :
73 children with VI aged 8 to 18 and 44 age matched controls provided demographic information and underwent vision testing including binocular best corrected distance visual acuity using the EVA tester. The PedsQL 4.0 Generic Core Scale Child Report (ages 8-12) and Teen Report (ages 13-18) was interviewer administered. Parents completed Parent Proxy Report individually in a room separate from their child. Statistical analyses included descriptive statistics, intra-class correlations and t-tests. Cronbach’s Alpha was determined for subscales.
Results :
Mean age of participants was 12.5±3.4 years (VI) and 12.7±3.1 years (control). Both groups were similar with regard to race and gender. Most parent informants were female. PedsQL subscales did not show any floor effects in this population, however some scales did have ceiling effects of up to 29% in certain groups. Cronbach’s Alpha was excellent (≥0.9) for all subscales for both parent and child report. Scale scores are found in the table. For children, scores were significantly different between those with and without VI for the School Functioning Scale (p=0.02) and Total Score (p=0.03). For teens, significant differences were found for Physical Functioning (p=0.003), Social Functioning (p=0.02), School Functioning (p=0.04) and Total Score (p=0.005). Parent report for children 8 to 12 was significantly different for those with and without VI for Social Functioning, School Functioning and Total Score (p<0.01.). Parent report for teens was significantly different across all scales (p<0.001). Parent and child reports correlated poorly (ICC<0.5), showing the importance of obtaining both perspectives.
Conclusions :
The PedsQL 4.0 is a valuable instrument that can be used to assess health related quality of life among children and teens with low vision. It shows adequate internal consistency reliability as well as discriminative validity.
This abstract was presented at the 2019 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Vancouver, Canada, April 28 - May 2, 2019.