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

We report herein the results of the cross-cul t u ral adap t ation and va l i d ation into the Mexican language of the parent’s version of t wo health re l ated quality of life instru ments. The Childhood Health Assessment Questionnaire (CHAQ) is a disease specific 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 Mexican CHAQ was alread y published and therefore it was revalidated while the Mexican CHQ was der ived from the European Spanish version with changing of the few words whose use is different in the 2 countries. A total of 182 subjects were enrolled: 89 patients with JIA (26% systemic onset, 47% polya rticular onset, 13.5% extended oligoarticular subtype , and 13.5% persistent oligo a rticular subtype) and 93 healthy children. The CHAQ clini c a l ly discri m i n ated between healthy sub jects and JIA pat i e n t s , with the systemic onset,and polyarticular onset subtypes hav ing a higher degree of disability, pain,and a lower overall well-being when compared to their healthy peers. Also the CHQ clinicall y discriminated between healthy subjects and JIA patients, with the systemic onset, and polyarticular onset having a lower physical and psychosocial well-being when com pared to their healthy peers. In conclusion the Mexican version of the CHAQ-CHQ is a relia ble, and valid tool for the functional, p hysical and psych o s o c i a l assessment of children with JIA.