The Slovak version of the Childhood Health Assessment Questionnaire (CHAQ) and the Child Health Questionnaire (CHQ)

We report herein the results of the cross-cul tural adaptation and validation into the Slovak language of the parent’s version of tw o health related quality of life instruments. The Childhood Health Assessment Ques t i o n n a i re (CHAQ) is a disease specifi c health instrument that measures functional ability in daily living activities in children with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA). The Child Health Questionnaire (CHQ) is a g e neric health instrument designed to capture the physical and psychosocial well-being of children independently from the under lying disease. The Slovak CHAQ CHQ were fully validated with 3 forward and 3 backwar d translations. A total of 119 subjects wer e enrolled: 52 patients with JIA (15% sys temic onset, 37% polyarticular onset, 10% extended oligoarticular subtype, and 38% p e rsistent oligo a rticular subtype) and 67 healthy children. The CHAQ clinically dis c ri m i n ated between healthy subjects and JIA patients, with the systemic, polyarticu lar and extended oligo a rticular subtypes having a higher degree of disability, pain, and a lo wer o verall well-being when com pared to their healthy peers. Also the CHQ cl i n i c a l ly discri m i n ated between healthy subjects and JIA patients, with the systemic onset, polyarticular onset and extended oli goarticular subtypes having a lower physi cal and psychosocial well-being when compared to their healthy peers. In conclusion the Slovak ve rsion of the CHAQ-CHQ is a reliable, and valid tool for the functional, p hysical and psych o s o c i a l assessment of children with JIA.